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PowerHouse Engines Powerhouse Engines — precision performance in Warragul, VIC 🇦🇺 Engine machining, custom builds & dyno tuning. Street, V8, Diesel & race builds.

Real workshop knowledge. Subscribe for tips & builds. Power isn’t guessed, it’s engineered. 📞 (03) 5623 3447 We have a state of the art facility and are one of the few shops who:
- Machine
- Assemble
- Dyno Tune
- All in-house
- Petrol or Diesel
- Road or Track

02/11/2026

🔥 135 PSI TO 240 PSI — NOW THAT’S CYLINDER PRESSURE! 🔥

We’re back on Andrew Kemp’s Speedway 350 Chev, and this one’s all about cylinder pressure and ignition timing!

When this engine originally came to us, it had been built in the States and was only showing around 135 PSI cranking compression.

After calculating the dynamic compression and developing a completely new combination, we predicted 240 PSI cranking pressure — and that’s exactly where it ended up!

So how did it perform on the dyno?

⛽ PUMP FUEL

* 27.5° total ignition timing
* 464 ft-lb torque
* 539 HP

We started conservatively at just 20° total timing and gradually worked our way up until we found where the engine was happiest.

🏁 METHANOL — RACE FUEL

* 33° total ignition timing
* 492 ft-lb torque
* 561 HP

That’s another 28 ft-lb and 22 HP from the change to methanol and optimising the tune!

💥 The interesting part? With 240 PSI cranking pressure, this engine made 539 HP on pump fuel with just 27.5 degrees of total ignition timing. Advancing it any further actually reduced torque! A great example of why more ignition timing doesn't necessarily mean more power.

It’s a great example of why understanding cylinder pressure, combustion efficiency and ignition timing is so important when developing an engine combination.

31/10/2026

🎸 PILLAR OF ROCK – ON THE ROAD! 🚌🔥

Cruising to Victoria Motor Tour Park for tonight’s presentation night! 🍻🤘

What better way to pass the time than a little acoustic version of “Paper and Fire” on the tour bus! 🎶

30/10/2026

ONE WRONG CONNECTION… ONE DESTROYED ENGINE! 💥🔧

Remember that engine we showed a while back that spun its bearings because the oil filter adapter was plumbed up backwards?

Well, here’s how it SHOULD be done! 👇

Using our hand oil primer, we show the oil coming out of the engine through the -12 line, feeding into the INLET side of the oil filter, then coming out of the filter and returning to the engine.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

But get it backwards and the consequences can be catastrophic!

Sometimes it’s the simplest things that cause the biggest failures!

Have a great Friday, everyone! 🍻

28/10/2026

🎸🏁 RUN TO PARADISE… DRAG CHALLENGE STYLE! 🏁🎸

Street Machine Drag Challenge is in full swing, with around 300 competitors battling it out from Tuesday through to Saturday in Australia’s biggest drag-and-drive event!

And right now, Barry Hall is leading the charge! 💪

Barry’s VH Commodore, powered by a twin-turbo Holden V8 with a Torque Power block, is showing the competition how it’s done! 🔥

But the action doesn’t stop when the racing finishes!

🎤 PILLAR OF ROCK will be rocking the Drag Challenge presentation on Saturday night, kicking off at 9 PM and going well into the early hours! 🎸🥁

And speaking of Torque Power…

We sat down with Craig Bennett over the weekend for the PowerHouse Podcast! 🎙️

Three and a half hours of stories, engine building, racing history and technical knowledge from a bloke who’s been right in the thick of the Australian performance engine industry for decades.

We’ve included a little sneak peek at the end of this video. Plenty more to come on that one!

Good luck to Barry and all the Drag Challenge competitors. See you Saturday night! 🍻🏁

26/10/2026

UPPER OR LOWER? DON’T ALWAYS TRUST THE LABEL! 🔧⚠️

While assembling Jamie’s 351 Cleveland, we picked up something interesting with a set of Clevite CB-927HN conrod bearings.

These bearings have an offset designed to provide maximum clearance for the crankshaft journal radius.

But when we fitted the bearing marked UPPER into the upper rod position, the shell sat more centrally than it should.

Swap in the bearing marked LOWER, and the offset sits exactly where we’d expect it!

Nothing complicated here, just another example of why you should always check your parts rather than relying on what’s stamped on them.

The lesson? Just because it says UPPER doesn’t mean it’s right!

It’s the little details that matter when building engines. 💪

23/10/2026

🔍 FORD CLEVELAND CRACKS – SOME YOU KNOW, SOME YOU DON’T!

Anyone who’s worked on Ford Clevelands will know about the common cracks at the back of the cylinder heads.

But here’s a couple you don’t see every day! 👀

Most cylinder head cracks are found around the combustion chambers, where the heat is concentrated. But this one had cracked right along the head gasket sealing line, near the outside edge of the deck face!

Using magnetic particle inspection, fluorescent particles and UV light, we can expose cracks that are almost impossible to see with the naked eye.

Then there’s another nasty one — cracking right at the bottom of the Cleveland block!

This thin section of casting can corrode away over time, eventually weakening enough to crack. We’ve seen it a few times, and it requires a plug repair to save the block.

Just goes to show why proper crack-testing is so important before you start building an engine! 🔧

21/10/2026

2 THOU OF TAPER… IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! 🤦‍♂️

This one would have Daniel Powell from Powell Cams shaking his head!

We’re building Andrew Kemp’s 350 Chev speedway engine, which runs a flat-tappet camshaft.

While checking lifter rotation, we noticed the lifters were spinning anti-clockwise instead of clockwise!

After measuring the lobes, we found 0.002” of taper — ground in the wrong direction!

Instead of pushing the camshaft back into the block, it was forcing it forward. Luckily, this engine has a front cam thrust to control end float.

Without it, the cam could have been loading up the timing chain, potentially leading to a failure.

Just goes to show, never assume a brand-new camshaft is right! 🔧

19/10/2026

22 YEARS LOCKED AWAY… NOW THE RACE IS ON TO MAKE SUMMERNATS! 🔥

We’ve just picked up this VL Calais, and the story behind how we ended up with it is pretty wild!

The car had been sitting in storage for an incredible 22 years after its owner sadly passed away.

When the family eventually went to collect it, they discovered there was a substantial storage bill owing. Nobody wanted to foot the bill, and even after the storage company offered to negotiate, the family decided to walk away from the car altogether.

The storage company then had to wait another two years before they could legally take ownership and eventually put it up for sale.

Fast-forward to Friday, and Jay spotted it on Facebook Marketplace just SIX MINUTES after it was listed! We jumped straight on it, struck a deal, and brought it home! 👌

But this isn’t just another project car!

We’ve got some big plans for the old Calais. It’s going to become our PowerHouse Engines P355 development and drag racing test bed, where we’ll be putting our Holden V8 engine packages through their paces and seeing exactly what numbers we can run at the track.

And the first goal? Get it ready for Summernats! 🔥

The boys haven’t experienced Summernats properly since they were little tackers, so we’re looking forward to getting down there with the Calais and having some fun!

From 22 years sitting in storage to a new life at PowerHouse Engines. This should be one hell of a project!

What would you do with it? Keep the classic Calais look or turn it into a proper drag car? 👇

16/10/2026

ENGINE BUILDERS DEVELOPING ENGINE PARTS – THERE’S A DIFFERENCE! 🔧💪

We recently dropped into Competition Engines to catch up with Zoran and check out his expanding range of AFD performance products.

From cylinder heads and intake manifolds to transmission pans, alternator brackets, extractors, radiators and plenty more, there’s a lot happening under the AFD banner.

What I really like about this is the experience behind the products.

Zoran isn’t just selling performance parts. He’s an engine builder with his own machine shop and engine dyno, developing products with a genuine understanding of what makes an engine work.

That hands-on experience matters when you’re designing and developing performance components.

Back at PowerHouse Engines, we’ve also got Andrew Kemp’s 350ci SDAV Hot Rod Speedway engine on the SuperFlow dyno.

These are tightly restricted engines running flat-top pistons, flat-tappet camshafts, 23-degree cylinder heads and factory stroke, all on methanol.

We’ve just completed a back-to-back ignition comparison between an MSD 7AL-3 and an MSD Pro Mag 12LT to see what difference the ignition system makes on the dyno.

Two very different ignition systems, same engine, same dyno. Let’s see what the numbers tell us! 🔥

07/10/2026

🔧 A HANDY FEATURE… EVEN IF SNAP-ON DIDN’T PLAN IT!

While setting the tappets on Greg Shepherd’s 355 Holden, we tried our new Snap-on FB336 feeler gauge set.

The gauge clips into the handle, but we discovered that if the tappet is adjusted too tight, the handle pulls straight off the gauge. We’re not sure that’s how Snap-on designed it—but it works as a handy warning that the clearance is too tight!

We’re also using Smoil in this engine for the first time, and the difference was immediately noticeable. The feeler gauge glided smoothly between the valve tip and rocker, without the galling and scratching we’ve experienced with nearly every other oil we’ve used.

Sometimes it’s the small things you notice during assembly that tell the biggest story.

Address

6 Lindy Court
Warragul, VIC
3820

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+61356233447

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