For a second there, I thought Westen Champlin was doing a collaboration with Emelia Hartford for some reason. But no, he just built his own big-block Ford Mustang for an entirely different reason, not drag racing, but doing burnouts.
Westen has noticed what we already know. Americans have gone soft, and if you want a crazy big-block burnout machine, the Australians probably do it better. Heck, they even turned a BMW 3 Series into a V8 smoke machine. However, this farm boy ain’t no quitter, so he built himself a 1,500 horsepower monster out of yet another Ford Mustang.
The best thing of all is that it doesn’t take him several weeks and dozens of 1-hour YouTube videos to make the swap happen. She’s ready in minutes (of watching time). Well, at least as ready as she’s going to be, because we know Westen’s cars have a habit of breaking down.
The project starts with yet another EcoBoost-powered boring-looking Mustang. In case you forgot, the Smoke-Stang was also powered by the dreaded 2.3-liter turbo engine before it got replaced with a Cummins.
The EcoBoost isn’t a bad engine, and it makes decent power for a 4-cylinder. However, some people don’t think it belongs in the Mustang, and it certainly isn’t up to the job if you want a killer burnout machine where smoke and sound are just as important.
The 2.3-liter is yanked out using some chains and a forklift. And what do we get in its place? Well, a big-block, obviously, but it’s from a Chevy. I just know a lot of Ford guys are going to hate that fact. But you can’t mess with the displacement of a 454, which looks like it’s coming out of a Silverado 2500HD.
Up to this point, we have a busted-up Mustang and a junkyard motor. But they’re joined by brand new racing parts, which appear to come courtesy of Holley. You’ve got a billet intake, a shiny new supercharger, the stack, and advanced fuel systems.
Props to Westen for having custom engine mounts and exhaust headers on a 454 big-block and not making pointless separate videos about it. But it wouldn’t be a typical one of his videos without some major mechanical issues putting a damper on the fun. Midway through its inaugural burnout, this ripper blows up. Clearly, the engine is completely destroyed, so it’s going to be a while before the 1500 horsepower burnout is possible.
