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A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.
Michael Goodwin Avatar
Michael Goodwin
03.11.26

Frostwarden Unleashes Megazilla 2.0, the Most Powerful Crate Engine Ever Created by an Automaker

At SEMA, the best builds do more than stop you in your tracks. They are outrageous. They are over the top. They inspire dreams of what is possible. They make you look closer, think about every part, and start imagining what you could build if you pushed the limits. Frostwarden does that.

Frostwarden is the first vehicle to put the new Megazilla® 2.0 crate engine swap on full display. It pairs a supercharged 7.3-liter V8 that can deliver over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque with the kind of hardware required to give that power an equally serious platform: 42-inch BFGoodrich tires, custom 18-inch Weld bead-lock wheels, 74Weld portal gear lifts, upgraded Dana driveline hardware, and custom Bilstein dampers.

It is intentionally extreme, built to show what Ford Racing Parts, Ford engineering, and a network of expert partners can do when the brief is simple: go big. Frostwarden is a specialty modified performance vehicle and is not available for purchase.

A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.
A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.

A Crate Engine Worth Building Around

Megazilla 2.0 starts with the same 7.3-liter family that anchors Ford’s large-displacement crate-engine lineup, but this is not Megazilla 1.0 with a supercharger bolted on. The 2.0 is a new development program with a stronger block, supercharger-specific camshaft, upgraded pistons, larger fuel injectors, a different belt drive and damper, and a 3.0-liter Gen 6 Whipple supercharger at the center of the package.

The result is the most powerful crate engine ever created by an automaker.* With its 3.0L Whipple Supercharger, the new Megazilla 2.0 can deliver over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque.

A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.

That matters because crate engines have long been a cornerstone of Ford Racing Parts. Builders come to our catalog with wildly different projects, from heritage Mustang and Bronco builds to F-100, Fox-body Mustang, and modern custom chassis projects.

Our goal is to give them Ford-designed, Ford-engineered powertrains that can become the foundation of those builds. Megazilla 2.0 pushes that idea to the far edge of the catalog: a flagship engine created to draw people in, show the ceiling of what is possible, and inspire the project that comes next.

Why Frostwarden

The engine needed a vehicle that could carry the same force, so Frostwarden started with the idea of a Bronco Arctic search-and-rescue rig: capable, imposing, and built for places where ordinary equipment would not be enough. We wanted to pair the most capable engine with an equally capable vehicle — the Ford Bronco.

A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.

From there, the brief was simple: let the enthusiasts go all in. Every choice — from the stance to the tires to the scale of the build — pushes that idea into SEMA territory, turning Megazilla 2.0 into a vehicle that is as audacious as the engine itself.

That purpose shaped the build. The 42-inch tires, portal gear lifts, and wide stance give Frostwarden the presence of a serious winter recovery machine, turning Megazilla 2.0 into a full-vehicle story about power, purpose, and capability pushed to the edge.

Built by Enthusiasts, for Enthusiasts

Projects like Frostwarden work because the people behind them are enthusiasts themselves. I first pitched Frostwarden as the launch vehicle for Megazilla 2.0 after years of conversations with partners about the idea of a giant, V8-powered Bronco. Once we committed to the concept earlier this year, the team began work in February and pushed the physical build into high gear in June.

By October, the final push looked exactly like the kind of thrash SEMA builds are famous for. The completed engine came off the dyno, traveled overnight to Kincer’s shop in Tennessee, and went directly into the vehicle as teams prepared for first fire, calibration, and continued development.

That pace is part of the story. Frostwarden brings together people who know their piece of the build deeply, then asks us to solve the larger challenge together: how to turn a 1,200-horsepower crate engine into a complete vehicle that feels as intentional as it is extreme.

A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.

More Than a Show Vehicle

Frostwarden puts an exclamation point on Ford’s return to SEMA: bigger, louder, and built to show what happens when the brief is simply to go all in. That is also what gives it value.

Halo builds create room to experiment, showcase capability, and start conversations with the builders, fabricators, and customers who shape the aftermarket. SEMA gives us a place to have those conversations directly: to understand what enthusiasts are building, where demand is moving, and how Ford Racing Parts can support the next wave of projects.

A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.
A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.
A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.
A Bronco halo build puts Ford Racing Parts’ new supercharged crate engine — over 1,200 horsepower and over 1,000 lb.-ft. of torque — on display for builders and enthusiasts.

For us, that is the bigger purpose behind Frostwarden, Megazilla 2.0, and the work happening across Ford Customer Service Division, which includes Ford Customization and Ford Racing Parts. Ford does not just make vehicles that people customize. We are building the engines, parts, engineering knowledge and support that help enthusiasts take an idea further. Frostwarden is the loudest version of that promise at SEMA this year: Ford powers what builders imagine.

Michael Goodwin is a Ford Racing Parts Planning Analyst and father of Megazilla 2.0.

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*Horsepower and torque ratings based on race fuel per SAE J607 standard. Your results may vary. When properly equipped. Horsepower and torque are independent attributes and may not be achieved simultaneously.

Frostwarden is a specialty modified concept vehicle that will not be offered for sale by Ford. The vehicle includes third-party components and modifications that may affect compliance with federal safety standards and other federal, state, or local laws.

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