The History of BluePrint Engines

Norris Marshall grew up in central Nebraska hearing stories about the family passion - fast cars and the engines that powered them.

His father grew up in the 1950s and owned a Flat Top and a ‘32 Ford Roadster that he would drag race. As a kid, Marshall got involved in dirt track and some drag racing. From a young age, he knew he wanted to work on performance engines instead of cars.

“I was always interested and enthused about the performance market. Working on performance engines is a lot more fun than working on stock engines,” Marshall said.

He started BluePrint Engines out of his garage by building engines for local racers in 1982. From there, the company expanded to a facility that could house three football fields in just the production area alone.

“BluePrint has really hit its stride in the last ten years,” said Marshall.

Since its founding, BluePrint Engines has grown to be one of the largest crate engine manufacturers in the world. BluePrint builds Chevy, GM, Ford, and Chrysler crate engines.

These crate engines are high-performance drop-in engines, sometimes called stroker engines or stroker motors. In all cases, these engines offer substantially more horsepower.

Crate engines or crate motors from BluePrint Engines offer a custom builder, hot rodder, or kit car builder an engine that is ready to drop into the vehicle.

BluePrint crate engines come complete with all the components that will be needed to start and run the engine very quickly. In addition, crate engines are dyno-tested and are shipped with a documentation of their high-performance power curve. Forged cranks and pistons are also available on all models. BluePrint Engines has produced more than 200,000 engines.

In addition to selling crate engines, BluePrint Engine’s new store also sells a full line of engine parts and accessories, including cylinder heads, blocks, intakes, carbs, and harmonic balancers - everything a car enthusiast needs to build, modify, or upgrade their existing project.


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