Magnuson Heartbeat 2650: 1,200 HP Under A C6 Hood

Caecey Killian October 1, 2026 6 min read 0

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The Magnuson Heartbeat 2650 is official, and the low-profile LS3 blower that once hid a 2.3-liter rotor pack under a factory C6 Corvette hood now carries a 2.65-liter one. Magnuson announced the system at the end of September 2026, with first units expected in late October for LS3 hot-rod applications running a Corvette accessory drive. Because the company is quoting support for over 1,200 horsepower while keeping the whole assembly below the stock hood line, this lands squarely in the middle of a problem C6 owners have been working around for more than a decade. Here is what the new system actually brings, what came before it, and what it will take to see that power number in your own car.

What Is The Magnuson Heartbeat 2650?

The Magnuson Heartbeat 2650 is a low-profile supercharger system for LS3-style rectangle port engines, built around the TVS2650 rotor pack and a pair of charge-air coolers. Magnuson rates it to support over 1,200 horsepower with the right supporting hardware, and the complete assembly clears a factory C6 Corvette hood with no cowl bulge and no hood swap.

The first configuration out the door is the hot-rod version, which uses the Corvette accessory drive and suits any LS3-headed combination a builder wants to drop it on. Magnuson is targeting late 2026 for the complete C6 Corvette kit, so the vehicle-specific package with all the supporting pieces arrives behind the standalone unit. Anyone who wants a notification when each configuration goes live can get on the Heartbeat interest list directly through Magnuson.

Why The Original Heartbeat Still Gets Talked About

Magnuson introduced the first Heartbeat at the 2012 SEMA show as a TVS2300 system for the 2008 through 2013 C6 Corvette, carrying part number 01-23-62-265-BL. The whole reason it existed was hood clearance. Before that system showed up, supercharging an LS3 Corvette usually meant buying a taller aftermarket hood and then paying a body shop to match the paint, which turned a bolt-on into a project with a repaint attached.

Magnuson solved it by building the Heartbeat 2650 only about 1-7/8 inches taller than the stock LS3 intake manifold. The unit also came in roughly 17 pounds lighter than the company’s older modular TVS2300 kit, used front-inlet front-drive rotors derived from the same Eaton technology found on the ZR1’s LS9, and ran twin dual-pass charge-air cooler cores. Magnuson’s own back-to-back testing claimed 25 more horsepower at the wheels than the modular kit it replaced. Lingenfelter listed one Heartbeat-equipped 378-cubic-inch C6 at 521 rear-wheel horsepower and 435 lb-ft, which gives you a sense of where the 2300 version lived.

That system also carried CARB Executive Order D-488-34, so it stayed street legal in California. Magnuson has not announced an EO number for the new unit yet, and that matters if you live somewhere with a sniffer test.

What The TVS2650 Rotor Pack Changes

Stepping from 2.3 liters to 2.65 liters per revolution is the whole story here. Eaton’s TVS2650 uses four-lobe high-helix rotors rated to 24,000 rpm and a 2.4 pressure ratio, and the extra displacement means the blower moves the same air at a lower shaft speed. Since heat and parasitic drag both climb with blower speed, a bigger rotor pack spinning slower generally hands back cooler charge air and more usable power under the curve. If you want the same boost the 2300 made, the 2650 does it with less effort. If you want more, the ceiling sits a lot higher.

The engineering challenge is packaging, because that rotor pack is not small. Magnuson’s existing Magnum TVS2650 hot rod kit, part number 05-00-26-153-BL, measures about 26.25 inches long by 15.63 inches wide by 12 inches tall and weighs roughly 110 pounds. Fitting that displacement under a Corvette hood line is the trick Magnuson is selling, and the company is directly comparing the Heartbeat’s height against its own Magnum LS3 TVS2650 to make the point.

We have seen what the TVS2650 does when there is room to work with. The BluePrint Engines 427 LS that cranks out 830 horsepower uses one, and so does the Cassar Performance C10 SS/R pro touring build, where a smaller GripTec pulley pushes the estimate well past what a stock blower speed would make. The difference now is that you do not need a cowl hood to run one.

Dual Charge-Air Coolers Do The Unglamorous Work

Boost makes heat, and heat is what quietly takes power back out of a supercharged combination on the second and third pull. That is why the charge-air cooling setup deserves as much attention as the rotor pack. Magnuson built the new Heartbeat 2650 around dual charge-air coolers, following the twin dual-pass core approach the original used.

For a car that sees repeated runs, whether that means a drag strip, an autocross, or a long pull up an on-ramp in July, intake air temperature control is the difference between a tune that holds and a tune that pulls timing. Magnuson credited the original Heartbeat’s integrated intercoolers to heat exchanger technology used in Formula 1 and NASCAR, and owners of those kits consistently reported low IATs. We have not run the 2650 version ourselves yet, so treat the cooling claims as manufacturer data until somebody logs it.

What 1,200 Horsepower Actually Requires

Magnuson is upfront about this, and we will be too. The company states plainly that reaching that power level takes a properly built engine, an adequate fuel system, and professional calibration. The 1,200 number is a capability ceiling for the supercharger, not a figure you see after a Saturday install on a stock LS3.

In practical terms, a stock-bottom-end LS3 is nowhere near that conversation. Getting there means a forged rotating assembly, head studs instead of torque-to-yield bolts, a fuel system that can actually feed four-digit power on whatever you plan to burn, and a tuner who has done this before. On top of that, the drivetrain behind the engine has to survive it, which usually means a built transmission and converter. None of that is unique to this supercharger, but it is worth saying out loud before somebody budgets for the blower and nothing else.

Magnuson Heartbeat 2650 Specs And Availability

Who Should Be Watching This One

C6 Corvette owners are the obvious audience, since this is the only way to get 2.65 liters of rotor pack under that hood without cutting anything. The second group is LS swap builders running a Corvette accessory drive in something older, because the hot-rod configuration ships first and does not care what the blower ends up sitting in. Anyone who has been pricing a Magnum TVS2650 and stalling out over hood clearance now has a direct answer. If the engine underneath it still needs sorting, our look at the BluePrint Engines iron LS block covers what a four-digit foundation actually asks for.

AboutCaecey Killian

Caecey Killian covers builds, installs, and product features for Car Junkie Magazine. He has spent years on the floor of the garage chasing horsepower across SBC, LS, and modern muscle platforms, and that shop time runs through every article he writes. His current CJM project is Project Street Reaper, a 1976 Camaro built around a fresh SBC 350. He is also known for Project Mighty Mouse, a 1977 Chevy Nova running a 1962 small-journal 327 SBC, with build coverage published across multiple online automotive magazines. His media background spans long-form build documentation, install coverage, and product features across the magazine and the Car Junkie Magazine YouTube channel. He writes the way he wrenches: specific, honest about the mistakes, and grounded in real garage work.

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