Here’s a simple but efficient strategy for pounding out nearly 900 horsepower on pump gas: mildly modified LS3 with a Whipple supercharger.

Steve Morris Engines (SME) built this 414ci LS for an Australian customer. It pounds out at 800 lb-ft torque in the low 4000-rpm range and maintains at least 700 lb-ft all the way up to 6,500 rpm where peak horsepower of 881 was recorded. Boost ranged from 9 to 12 pounds.

“It’s just a nice package,” boasts SME’s Ryan Witte.

The stock LS block maintains the 4.065 bore and is filled with a Callies 4-inch stroke crankshaft, Oliver rods and SME-spec Diamond pistons with Total Seal rings. Compression ratio is around 9:1. Lubrication is handled by Melling performance pump.

Morris starts with factory LS3 heads and hand-grinds the ports with a boosted application in mind. The combustion chamber also gets a touchup before the stock valves, PAC beehive springs and stock rockers are installed.

“The heads are really good out of the box, so you need to do is clean up the bowl area a little bit and blend the chambers,” says Whitte.

Morris also uses a proprietary camshaft purpose-ground for boosted applications.

“We went real soft on the actual lobe profile and kept the lift mild, which factors into the street pump-gas use,” says Whitte. “We always put them on a wide lope separation (114-degrees for this engine) for boosted engines. With too much overlap you struggle to make boost.”

The 2.9-liter Whipple twin-screw supercharger kit is designed for a late-model Camaro and features an integrated intercooler (in the video you can see the water-feed lines going to a large bucket for the dyno test). The kit was upgraded with an Innovators West 8-rib accessory drive and Wilson throttle body. The engine’s overall clean look is enhanced with a set of Holley LS coil covers.

Engine tuneup is managed by a Holley HP ECU and calibrated for pump gas, although Australian gasoline has a slightly higher octane rating.

“We didn’t really take that into account,” adds Whitte. “We tuned it for our gas, which builds in a safety margin for theirs.”