Beck Racing Engines Pete Milek stands behind a 418 Sand Kill engine that is ready to be dialed in on the BRE dyno. With the plastic LS3 Corvette intake in place, the engine netted 635.9 peak horsepower at 6,700 rpm and a peak torque figure of 570.1 lb/ft. at 4,600. From 4,300-7,100 rpm, the engine averaged 579.5 horsepower and 538.6 lb/ft. of torque.

Last month we showed you some of the basic hardware that goes into one of Beck Racing Engines' Chevrolet LS-based 418 Sand Kill motors. With over 20 years of know-how centered around high-performance Chevrolet racing engines, Frank Beck's research and development on the GM Gen III/IV small blocks has spawned about two-dozen built-to-order turnkey-engine packages for the LS, providing potential customers with a wide range of choices, available anywhere from 600-800 horsepower. Beck's catalog of combos can be easily honed to meet the individual performance needs of anything from a Class 1 buggy to the highway-haulin' tow rig that shuttles it.

The Sand Kill 418 that we tested at Beck's shop is one of the most versatile engines in Beck's catalog. Producing just over 630 horsepower at 6,700 rpm and more than 570 lb/ft. of torque at 4,600 rpm on 91-octane pump gas, this puppy puts out even more horsepower and torque merely by switching from the stock GM LS3 intake manifold to a GM Performance Parts L92 aluminum intake and an MSD throttle body.

THE REAL DEAL

Note the bungs sticking out of the header tube. Those are Innovate Motorsports wideband O2 sensors. The Innovate ST-12 system allows Beck to track and log air/fuel ratio data throughout the entire rpm range. Each Beck engine is tested, tuned and programmed using 12 wideband O2 sensors, eight EGT sensors and nearly 100 other engine monitoring sensors, logging data that aids in tuning.

It's amazing how a lot of people will still scoff at the idea of using a dyno to prove the worthiness of an off-road engine. Stratospheric horsepower numbers at wide-open throttle might hold merit in the roundy-round world of NASCAR, down at the local dragstrip or even at the dunes, but they don't mean squat in the throttle-pedaling environment of the desert and the rocks. Beck will be the first to agree and disagree at the same time.