154 STREET MACHINE
MILL OF THE MONTH
STORY ANDREW BROADLEY PHOTOS PETER BATEMAN154 STREET MACHINE
398 CI LS NEXT
BG ENGINES, NORTH RICHMOND, NSW
A
FULL
PLATEWE ASKED Damian to
talk us through the
unique engine plate/
front-drive system
they developed in-house
for this donk.
“We wanted to integrate the
engine mounting plates, a dry-sump
pump, a snout support, a fuel pump
and ignition system all in one product,”
he said. “Obviously, you’ve got the
water to contend with as well. We sat
down and drew up a rough picture of
what we wanted and tried to integrate
everything into one package so it’s
really easy to service.“An engine like this is going to be
reasonably high-maintenance, so
the system is designed to be easy to
take on and off. It’s something we can
do for any car; it’s not just a one-off
deal. We’ve had a couple of people
interested in doing different systems
and each one can be customised to suit
a given application.”ROADLEY PHOTOSPETERBATEMANORTH RICHMOND, NSW
W
HEN one of Sydney’s most
prominent engine builders
puts together a donk of their very
own, you imagine it being a
pretty formidable piece of hardware, and
that’s certainly the case with this blown 398ci
LS-based powerplant owned and built by
BG Engines. It’s been in the works for
quite some time, and it’s destined
for BG’s shop ute – an HQ Holden
drag car, which formerly ran an
aspirated combo.
“This new engine uses an LS Next Dart
block,” explained Damian Baker from
BG. “It’s got a Callies crankshaft,
aluminium rods and custom CP
pistons. We’re using a set of
cylinder heads through Nathan
Higgins in Victoria, trying to stick
to as many Aussie bits and pieces
as we can. It’s a solid-roller-type
engine with one of our own camshafts.”
The blower manifold was built in-house
by BG Engines’ Pro Billet division, as
was the unique engine plate
with integrated front
drive system (see
sidebar). The blower
itself is an 8/71 Littlefield,
though the team also has an
SSI item to test out.
“ICE Ignitions have been really
good. We’re going to campaign their
20amp, twin-coil set-up and we’re pretty
excited about that; we thank them greatly for all their
support,” said Damian. “The engine also has a Jesel
belt drive, and it’s a dry-sump engine with one of
our own fuel systems, which we’ll put on the fuel
flowbench and do all our homework with. Then it’ll all
go onto the dyno for a couple of pulls. We’re looking
for upwards of 1400hp with this engine, and we
want to run in the low sevens and possibly even into
the sixes one day.”
There’s no denying the popularity of LS engines
these days, but Damian ran up against a lack of
availability of certain high-end components to suit
this blown alcohol combo. “Plenty of people do one-
off parts here and there, but we’d like to be able
to supply products that are a repeatable thing. If
someone wants a fuel pump drive or an oil pump
drive, we’ve got it.”
One thing’s for sure: We can’t wait to hear this
thing zing to 10,000rpm! s