As soon as Ford’s Godzilla engine was unveiled as a crate motor, Frank Marchese and his crew at Dandy Engines jumped straight into development of this 7.3-litre pushrod V8.

Considering the mill is used in Ford’s F-truck range in the States, it has the makings of a really strong package for madmen like Frank to play with.

It doesn’t take a lot to turn a new, as-delivered Godzilla crate motor into a four-digit-horsepower machine, as Frank explains. “It’s a 445-cube package we typically build using a factory block, factory heads and factory crank,” he says.

“I’m used to building Dart blocks with aftermarket heads, so to me, this is a factory engine with [aftermarket] pistons, rods, camshaft, timing chain, and then you put on the Harrop blower and we have a party!”

This combo uses standard valves with lighter valve springs and Yella Terra rockers, though Frank has done similar packages with the factory rockers if it comes with the right type as-new.

Atop the engine is a Harrop 2650 supercharger using a 65mm pulley and making around 15psi of boost, and there’s also one of Harrop’s 115mm throttlebodies with a bellmouth intake for maximum power on the dyno.

“Generally speaking, we’d make 1200hp with this combo on E85,” says Frank.

An external Peterson oil pump is used with a Harrop mounting bracket, while a Profab sump allows clearance for engine swaps.

This particular Godzilla is destined for a Dandy Engines customer’s XA ute, set up for flex-fuel, but it’ll still make 800hp on pump 98. The customer is hoping to do Drag Challenge next year in the ‘Zilla-powered ute.

So, did it make the 1200hp mark? Watch the video below to find out!