Holley Fuel Injection & a Vortech Supercharger: How to Make a 1,200 HP Windsor

Making serious horsepower has never been easier, thanks to modern tech and quality parts.

Coyote V8s are all the rage today when it comes to custom builds. If you’re looking to build a hot V8 for your next Ford truck project, it’s obviously in your best interests to keep your options open. Simply put, we’re saying that you shouldn’t sleep on the venerable Windsor V8 engine.

Despite the fact that the Ford Coyote V8 is getting to be more plentiful in the junkyard, the Windsor offers impressive potential, admirable durability, and cost-effectiveness. They’re easy to come by and they can make big power.

How big? Our friends over at Holley turned us on to this monster Windsor build from Prestige Motorsports of Concord, North Carolina. Apparently, living in the heart of NASCAR country rubbed off on them, because they built this one for serious horsepower.

Show-Stopping Dyno Results

Starting with a taller 351 Windsor block, the team at Prestige Motorsports bored and stroked the small V8 all the way up to a very not-small 427 cubes. With help from a Vortech V7 YSI supercharger, this engine pumps out a jaw-dropping 1,227 horsepower at 6,400 RPM and 1,051 lb/ft of torque at 6,000 RPM at 16 PSI.

Although Prestige Motorsports is a professional shop, you could absolutely build something like this at home. However, careful parts selection is key. You can pull out your credit card and aim the parts cannon at any old engine. Do that, though, and you won’t get these results. You don’t get these results without doing some serious homework.

The engine is fed by a Holley 1000 CFM four barrel carburetor-style EFI throttle body running Holley’s excellent Terminator X engine management. Having precise control over every parameter will allow you to extract the most out of any build from mild to wild.

We doubt that your street truck needs 1,200 horsepower to take your spouse out for ice cream once a week. Even if you’re building a cruiser, though, the reliability and fuel economy benefits of a modern, sophisticated multi-port fuel injection system can’t be ignored.

Photos: Holley

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Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.

He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.

In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.

You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.

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