Engine swaps are common in the performance world, but as one YouTuber set out to prove, the donor vehicles don’t always need to be something conventional. David (aka ThatDudeInBlue) documents the strange story of his friend’s S550 Ford Mustang, which was subject to an engine swap from an unlikely source, fitting the pony car with the engine from an Amazon delivery van.
Though it’s never revealed in the video, it’s likely that the donor engine came from a Ford Amazon van. That engine is no slouch, though. In fact, it’s the naturally aspirated 7.3L Godzilla V8 engine, which featured two different stock tunes in 2021, and it was pulled from a van that met an unfortunate end in a tornado. The van itself was scrap, but the engine was in decent shape, prompting the owner of this Ford Mustang EcoBoost to pull that engine and upgrade his pony to a V8-powered monster.
The Mustang, which belongs to Trevor of MotionAutoTV, may have some advantages over its bone stock counterparts. The Godzilla is a pushrod V8 as opposed to the dual overhead cam 5.0L Coyote V8. It’s used in heavy duty trucks and delivery vans, and is built for heavy work. With minimal modifications, the Godzilla makes 580 horsepower under the hood of this oddball Mustang, along with over 500 pound-feet of torque.
“This is much more of a 6400 RPM monster that just hits instantaneously,” David says. “So where you don’t have that low-end torque in the Coyote – it’s not that the Coyote doesn’t have torque, but this has more – it’s more instant and you get all the sauce all at once.”
David makes a few passes with the Ford Mustang, making its Godzilla engine sing. He’s blown away by its performance, proving that high-performance vehicles don’t always need the likes of a crate engine to become a viable competitor.
While Trevor might have been the first owner to yank the Godzilla from a trashed Amazon van, he’s certainly not the first to install one in an unconventional model. Fellow YouTube personality REVan Evan dropped one in a Fox Body Ford Mustang. And when properly tuned and equipped, that same engine can make upwards of 1,100 horsepower, so don’t sleep on that 7.3L workhorse.
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