Boosted Chevy Inline-Six Shames V8s With 1,320 HP on the Dyno

There’s just something about an American inline-six. Maybe it’s because I’ve heard the words “small-block Chevy” more times than I’ve heard my own name throughout my life, but the easy-power V8s just aren’t that interesting to me anymore. Plus, people have been building go-fast six-cylinders for generations; some folks even prefer them. This 1936 Chevrolet pickup proves you don’t need a V8 or big displacement to make massive power, and purely on cool factor alone, it’s a build worth clapping for. The fact that its turbocharged Chevy I6 makes more than 1,300 horsepower on a hub dyno is an added bonus.

It’s the work of Staff Bros Garage, who started with a 292-cubic-inch General Motors lump and then de-stroked it to 285 cubic inches. That raises some eyebrows straight away as most engine builders want more displacement—not less—but this tactic isn’t unheard of. A lot of the big-power Barra I6 builds we see out of Australia use this tactic to reduce the distance a piston has to travel, allowing it to rev higher and, in theory, faster.

That’s important for this build as it incorporates a Garrett 5020 Gen2 88-millimeter turbo. There are certainly bigger blowers out there, but to get the most out of it with this setup, it helps to be able to spin roughly 7,000 rpm. It took 42 psi of boost to hit the 1,320 hp mark and thankfully, the stock block held up. Funny enough, it was originally stamped with “Property of UPS,” so you have to know it’s been ridden hard and put away wet most of its life.

Just because the block is stock doesn’t mean the rest of the bottom-end is, of course. For starters, Staff Bros Garage had a billet steel crank custom-built by Marine Crankshaft for this engine. The connecting rods are forged GRP units, while JE built the flat-top pistons. They made the engine girdle in-house out of 6061 aluminum, and like a proper race build, it has dry-sump oiling.

The Chevy engine wears a Sissell ported head with a Bullet custom camshaft, too. While there are some off-the-shelf parts for the 292 platform, a lot of them have to be made to order. Staff Bros Garage says it’s spent 300-400 hours actually building the I6 over the last four years with an estimated 1,000 hours of research on top of that. It was never going to be easy, though.

A FuelTech FT600 ECU manages all the goings-on inside the engine to make sure it runs at peak power and efficiency. It also makes use of the brand’s FTSPARK ignition system, a necessary upgrade if you want to put up these types of numbers.

Watch and, more importantly, listen to this thing buzz on the dyno. It sounds totally alien if you’re used to thumping V8s, but it’s still sweet music to anybody who digs horsepower, no matter where it comes from.

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