You can’t beat a good old-fashioned Ford versus Chevy engine build-off. It’s even more fun when you can get in on the action, even if it’s just digitally.

Here’s the story. PowerNation TV Engine Power’s Mike Galley and Pat Topolinski traveled to the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) campus in Lyle, IL to judge the UTI Engine Builder’s Challenge. The contest pitted two teams of three–two students and one advisor—to a Chevy versus Ford duel.

The rules were simple: the engines had to be carbureted, run on 93 octane pump gas, use 0W-40 motor oil, and built on a $7,000 budget using off-the-shelf parts from Summit Racing.

Team Chevy—students Lance Stanfield and Dustin Ulrich plus instructor Stephan Liss—went with a classic 383-cubic-inch small block that made 490.5 peak horsepower and 459.3 ft.-lbs. of peak torque. Here is the parts list.

Team Ford—students Samuel Edwards III and Kent Evans with instructor Mike Pair—built a 347 cubic inch small block that made 459 peak horsepower and 408.1 ft.-lbs. of peak torque. Find the parts list here.

The winner was chosen based on horsepower per cubic inch.

You can watch the episode at PowerNationTV.com

This is where you get in on the fun. We’d like to know what you would do differently if you were building these engines using the same set of rules as the Builder’s Challenge. Would you do more cubic inches? More compression? Swap cams or cylinder heads? Or would you build something different from the block up? Tell us why you think your combination is better.  Including part numbers would be a plus.

Since we have no way of calculating how much horsepower and torque your engine combo would make, this is pretty much an exercise in bench racing. If you want to take a guess at what your engine would do, go ahead—but be prepared to hear about it from your friendly rivals.

So, who’s ready build (virtual) engines?

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Author: Alan Rebescher

Editor, author, PR man—Alan Rebescher has done it all in a 37 year career in the high performance industry. He has written and photographed many feature stories and tech articles for Summit Racing and various magazines including Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hot Rodding, and edited Summit Racing’s Street & Strip magazine in the 1990s. His garage is currently occupied by a a 1996 Mustang GT ragtop.