From Canada, With Displacement: Ford's Largest Gas V8 Arrives As a Crate Engine

North of the border, Wednesday dawned on a country celebrating a significantly less festive, no-touch national holiday. No fireworks and crowds on this COVID-y Canada Day, just locals lighting them off from the roofs of walk-ups in your author’s humble neighborhood. The “crowd” outside the Burger King hasn’t grown or shrunk in size (and remains just as clandestine as before).

This year, however, Americans have good reason to join in the celebration.

This week, Ford announced that the 7.3-liter V8 found in its new-for-2020 Super Duty line will be offered as a standalone product. The brand’s newest crate engine is a throwback that generated many smiles upon its release — boasting iron construction, pushrods, and nary a turbocharger in sight, the engine dubbed “Godzilla” generates 430 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque. Output doesn’t change in crate engine guise.

Built at Ford’s Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, the 7.3L is a breath of fresh air in an industry where downsizing and forced induction is quickly becoming the norm, and even making major inroads in the full-size pickup space. Certainly at Ford, anyway.

Buyers of the crate engine now offered by Ford Performance will be on the hook for $8,150, with the beefy bundle including a fully assembled engine, ignition coils and wires, oil pan, oil cooler, intake and throttle body, and exhaust manifolds. Apparently, the mill can be tuned up to 600 hp without too much effort.

What you do with it will depend on the size, shape, and surroundings of the engine bays at your disposal, as well as your imagination.

[Images: Ford]