It wasn’t long ago that Whipple Superchargers announced they would be introducing a Gen 5 3.0-liter supercharger for Ford’s 7.3-liter Godzilla engine found in modern F-250 trucks. Whipple did offer a gear head option to purchase the supercharger à la carte, but the main attraction was the ability to purchase a complete kit for an 7.3-liter equipped F-250, including an engine calibration tool. It didn’t take long for the aftermarket to scoop up these supercharger kits to see how it performed. One such shop was Palm Beach Dyno, who threw the new Whipple Gen 5 3.0-liter supercharger on their shop truck.
Palm Beach Dyno is well known in the Shelby GT500 community for building insanely fast ¼- and ½-mile Shelbys with extremely high horsepower. It wasn’t until owner Ken Bjønnes decided to swap a Godzilla engine into his personal S197 Mustang that started what could be considered the push rod division of Palm Beach Dyno. Now Bjønnes has started playing with the shop’s 7.3-liter equipped F-250 to see what kind of power the new Whipple supercharger kit will make.
“Since we already have a heads and cam setup from Willis Performance Enterprises, LLC, we decided to start at the lowest boost possible for some realistic numbers,” Bjønnes says. “At only 8 psi this beast laid down 637 horsepower and 574 lb-ft of torque at the wheels.”
For reference, this is a gain of over 250 horsepower over the stock horsepower on a very low boost setting. Since the 7.3-liter engine has robust reliability in mind, you can safely turn the boost level up another 3-4 PSI which on a stock setup should see around 600 horsepower. Sweetening up the package deal, is if bought through Palm Beach Dyno they will schedule a remote tuning session to make sure your F-250 is running smooth.
The supercharger kit is easy to install and can transform your Ford F-250’s ability to tow or turn it into a complete sleeper to the unprepared street car. Either way, Whipple and Palm Beach Dyno have prepared the perfect setup for both. So, if you roll up on a Palm Beach Dyno GT500 being trailered, be cautious as the tow pig might be packing a serious punch as well.