Why is the LS so GOOD?? - /ENGINEERED

[BangkokDean]

Why is the LS so GOOD?? - /ENGINEERED

Why is the LS so GOOD?? That’s the title of one of this week’s /DRIVE episodes. As you can see, the video below is all about the engineering behind the LS, and what really makes it one of the best platforms you could ever want for your project car. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a Corvette, a street truck, a classic muscle car, a supercar, or an off-road desert racer, the LS is simply one of the best engine packages out there.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Honestly, just like /DRIVE, we could go on forever about the merits of the LS platform, and why it will go down in history as one of the best engines ever engineered. However, unlike /DRIVE, it won’t take us a full 19 minutes to explain just why the LS is so good. To do that, we will just show you the video below, taken at this year’s LS Fest.

It features a Corvette C6, a high speed bowl, and tire smoke. You’re welcome.


BECAUSE DRIFT VETTE - LSx Drifting Showdown

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

[mrvette]

BUT there are reports of certain new vettes having engine problems, valve guides to the point of the keepers giving up, and piston pounding valve right through the cyl head...of course trashing the entire engine.....

seems odd to me, and GM is balking at what they SAY is a design problem....

[BangkokDean]

As I see it, how many LS motors had that problem compared to the amount of these motors that were produced and are still going strong.

From what I noticed recently with the internet anyone who had an engine problem (in any car) starts a campaign on line that blows things out of proportion.

I do remember in the mid 60s lots of guys bought big cube cars and drag raced them and when there was a problem the went back to the dealer for warranty repairs. I believe that is why GM got out of the muscle car business at that time.

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by BangkokDean

As I see it, how many LS motors had that problem compared to the amount of these motors that were produced and are still going strong.

From what I noticed recently with the internet anyone who had an engine problem (in any car) starts a campaign on line that blows things out of proportion.

I do remember in the mid 60s lots of guys bought big cube cars and drag raced them and when there was a problem the went back to the dealer for warranty repairs. I believe that is why GM got out of the muscle car business at that time.

Nah, it was the EPA and all those CatASStrophic converters they forced on us and then the first fuel go round thanks to islam regions,The SHA/Iran thanks to that shit for brains Karter,,... doubles the price of gas overnight....folks making a lousy 15k/year were hurting ....and of course the silly MPG went all to hell, and performance per cubic inch went to hell,

GM went to an outfit in Newport News Va. known as Bendix in the R&D daze, they gave Bendix some Olds 350 engines and some Caddy 425 engines and a few 500 ci Caddy engines.....The advent of analogue chips, called OP Amps short for OPerational Amplifiers meant high amounts of gain in a very small chip, made all sorts of signal processing possible, so they invented the first electronically controlled FI systems, and the injectors were batch fired as I recall......Bendix got bought out by Allied Signal, which is now part of Siemens ......the first systems got to production in '76 in the Caddy Seville.....and I tore a system out of a '79 Caddy Sedan DeVille, and modified it up on a Pontiac intake manifold, installed on my 462/455 Pontiac .30 over in my '70 Lemans/GTO convertible, I bumped the mpg by over 4 mpg with that one swap, as well as it ran SO much smoother....I did this over the winter 91-92 and it got published in High Perf. Pontiac mag Feb '95.......called Injected Madness....by the 80's they switched to digital computers, instead of analogue, cheaper to make by far, smaller too....

[BangkokDean]

Sorry, GM dropped out of racing and Ford and Mopar stayed in drag racing in the mid to late 60s it had nothing to do with EPA in those days. GM could not or not want to compete with Ford and Mopar cars.

[68/70Vette]

The LS engines are for sale in GM's Performance Parts Catalog (GM PPC). Just astounding horsepower out of relatively light engines. The supercharged 650 hp engine is available...and it's really an aluminum small block! Furthermore the GM PPC engines are smog compliant in all states, including California, if you install them in a car made before 1995. It really gets better. I've you're in a state that doesn't enforce smog rules, the GM PPC engines can be reflashed to produce significantly more HP!

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by BangkokDean

Sorry, GM dropped out of racing and Ford and Mopar stayed in drag racing in the mid to late 60s it had nothing to do with EPA in those days. GM could not or not want to compete with Ford and Mopar cars.

I really can't say anything about GM being in any drag racing back then, I just know I was in the 'Pontiac Clan' back then drag racing and one guy cleaning up pretty good, putting a 5500 lbs Pontiac Bonneville STATION WAGON into the lo 13's high 12s.....it would pull wheel stands.....started out life as a 421 block, I dunno what he had done to it....too long ago...plenty of GM action, Had that GM dual coupling 4 speed auto trans in it.....I had one in my '61 Catalina, and got into the brain, modding it to shift fast and hard, filling that second coupling so fast it felt like a clutch pack....

BUT true, the HEMI ruled the roost pretty good, Garlitz/etc.....I left the drag strip basically in '68.......went to one runoff here in Gainsville a few years ago, had earplugs and shooting muffs, One top fuel guy taking off, fun, but LOUD.....but when TWO of them took off in a race, the sound pulses were not in synch, to became additive/subtractive with the engines being out of phase with each other.....the air pressures were shocking to say the least....felt like getting hit on the chest with a ball bat..... I don't recall THAT kind of reaction back in the 60's.....