- So, we've all been inside, right?
We've been tinkering with our cars,
getting them ready for that first drive of the summer.
Well, not me, buddy.
I mean, I've been going stir crazy,
making videos in my empty garage.
I haven't turned a wrench in months
and baby boy, I need a project, something big.
Something I can really sink my teeth into,
like an engine swap, yeah man, that's just the ticket.
An engine swap.
What engine should I choose?
Something turbo?
Something kooky?
No, no, no, the choice is obvious.
(engine revving)
You can't spell Chevrolets without these two letters,
a sleeper without them is just eeper.
It's been a long time coming
and we're finally going to do it boy.
You asked for this and you should be
more careful about what you ask for.
(engine revving)
(tires screeching)
(engine revving)
This is everything you need to know to get up to speed
on the LS engine, mother (beeping).
That's fun.
(upbeat music)
You can't talk about the LS and not mention the Corvette.
Thanks to our friends at Omaze,
you can now enter for your chance to win
a 2020 Corvette Stingray.
That's a C8, baby.
With taxes and shipping included.
If that's not good enough,
you also get $20000 cash for some sick wheels
or some new suspension or just like gas.
That's right, you don't need to get your hearing checked,
you heard me correctly my friend.
You could win a brand new 2020 Corvette Stingray Z51.
That's 495 buff horses,
a sub three second zero to 60
and all you have to do is hop over
to Omaze.com/donut and enter for your chance to win.
Best of all, in my personal opinion,
when you donate to enter,
you're also supporting the Ronald Reagan
Medical Center at UCLA.
Now, this place is very special to me
because as a lot of you guys know,
I had a heart attack about six months ago
and this is the place that I went
to get cardiac rehab after my heart attack.
So, it's a great cause and you might win
an awesome car and some cash to boot.
So, hurry up and head over to Omaze.com/donut and enter now.
(engine starting)
(laughing)
This thing is very, very cool, dude.
(beeping)
What do owners of Volvo 240s, resto mod muscle builds
and FD RX7s with blown engines
have in common besides great taste?
They've all been asked the same question,
you gonna LS swap that thing?
You gonna LS swap that thing?
This week, we're not talking about a car,
we're talking about engines, baby
and not just any piston pusher.
This mill is one of General Motor's greatest legacies.
A proven possessor of reliability, power and potential.
We're going to cover everything about the Chevy LS.
What do all the numbers mean?
Which ones came in which cars?
Which one should you swap into your 240?
So, let's turn the clocks back a bit.
Chapter one.
Humble small block beginnings.
One sunny day, in the spring of 1992,
the top brass at GM gathered in
the company's secretive test site,
the Milford Proving Grounds outside of Detroit, Michigan.
They were there to figure out
what nearly 50 years of V8 engineering
had come to in the roaring early 90s.
Like the chart topping song by Boys To Men that year,
was this going to be the end of the road
for traditional push rod small block V8s?
♪ Cause we've come to the end of the road ♪
♪ No I can't let go ♪
♪ You belong to me ♪
♪ You belong to you ♪
♪ You belong to me ♪
(beeping)
A blind test was arranged.
Two nearly identical black C4 Corvettes.
These cars were prepped for day of bashing
on GM's massive open skid pad dubbed The Black Lake.
That is so like Norwegian metal.
They weren't entirely identical however.
Corvette A was equipped with an updated take
on the classic GM push rod V8
meaning that there's one cam shaft in the middle
pushing on rods that actuate valves
while corvette B was rocking an overhead cam design
meaning that there are two camshafts above each cylinder
turned via a timing belt.
It's more modern and much more complex.
They did burnouts and drifty things for like 12 hours
and then started discussing which felt
the best and the most thrilling.
Now, the executives really dug how one of the Corvettes
pulled as soon as they put their foot down.
Fast responding, good old American torque spurs.
Reception for the other vet wasn't as glowing.
The revs had to be held pretty high
to stay in the power band.
Yeah, it was really fun, it sounded really good,
but it was not as immediately thrilling.
The preferred engine was in Corvette A,
it was a simpler push rod V8,
not the fancier new dual overhead cam motor.
So, then and there, it was settled.
From here on out, GM would continue engineering
and developing the push rod V8.
Chapter two.
How to create something entirely new.
Let's take a second and clarify all this gen business.
Gen one covers all 350-ish cubic inch small blocks
built from the mid-50s all the way up until the 90s.
Now, gen two engines are the 5.7 liter V8s
built briefly in the early to mid 90s, known as the LTs.
All right.
So, back to the narrative.
Behind the scenes, in the mid to late 90s,
GM was looking to carry on push rod
technology into the 21st century.
The next Chevy V8 needed to hit several important
but seemingly contradictory goals.
With ever tightening emission standards,
improving fuel economy was a must,
but the new engine still had to beat the competitors
in both horsepower and reliability.
Now, that is a tall order
and I should know about a tall order
because my momma made one when she called up God.
She said, hello God, I'd like a son,
make him abut 6'3 and handsome as hell.
God was like, anything for my favorite angel, Liz.
My mom, she's an angel.
So, who would GM bring in to sew the whole thing together?
Well, a drag racing legend of course.
Ed Koerner, GM's power train VP of engineering at the time
was a V8 savant who also held
a frickin NHRA drag racing record.
That rules.
He was picked by the executive
director of GM power train, Tom Stevens
and entrusted with the job of developing the gen three V8
with one catch, it could share no parts
with the previous gen motors.
Oh, hey there, Ed, here's a couple key traits
for this new engine we were talking about the other day.
Yes, you get decent mileage.
Yep, yep, okay.
Be cheaper and easier to produce
than what we've made in the past, don't you know?
And be able to go under the hood
of essentially any GM vehicle.
Yep, yep, yep, uh-huh, uh-huh.
Including front wheel drive, don't you know?
It's a tall order boss,
but just like when James Pumphrey's mom, Liz hit up God
and asked for a son that was 6'3, I think I can do it.
Him and his team who are called the super six
went forth and came up with something quite special indeed.
Chapter three.
A new generation is born.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
announcing to the world, the brand spanking new
gen three small block V8 from Chevy, the LS.
(shouting)
First debuting under the hood
of the then brand new C5 Chevy Corvette.
The LS1 was an engineering masterpiece.
The LS1 made around 350 horsepower in the Corvette.
(engine revving)
Not a big increase over the previous gen two engine,
but the LS1 was much lighter
because it was all aluminum, baby.
Had way better cooling properties,
making it more heat efficient.
It was stronger than the old LTs.
And the engineers even said that the stock OEM
aluminum heads were more on par
with aftermarket performance heads of the past.
That's what you get when you let
hot rodders build a car for you.
Good job, Chevy.
The LS1 was an instant hit
but it wasn't long before GM offered something with,
I believe it's pronounced a bit more oomph,
because why the frick not?
It was also time to start confusing people
because they didn't call the second LS the LS2,
that would make too much frickin sense.
Debuting in the C5Z06,
the second LS motor was called the LS6.
That makes sense.
Z06, LS6, where's all the confusion?
Just sit tight buddy, it gets real crazy later on.
(engine revving)
The LS6 sported a healthy boost in power
while sharing basically the same architecture as the LS1.
The main improvements were a bigger intake manifold,
higher compression ratio, a more aggressive camshaft
and some goodies to approve on track reliability.
Initially, it punched out 385 horsepower
and 385 pound feet of torque.
That's right, a perfect horsepower.
But later on, they bumped it up to 400 even.
They also put this motor in the Cadillac CTSV,
aka, my favorite Caddy.
While other manufacturers were spending boo koo buckanaros
on more complex overhead cam engines,
GM was proving that old fashioned tech
could still get her done.
But they had to keep pushing the limit.
It was time for the next generation of LS engines
to take charge and do the old push rod proud.
Chapter four, building upon greatness.
The new gen four Chevy V8 now
encompassing more modern technology,
like variable valve timing,
active fuel management, flux fuel capability,
also known as E85, baby.
The first place that this tech made an appearance
was in the third LS engine.
The six liter LS2,
because two comes after six.
I mean, yeah, I can see why it's confusing.
(engine revving)
This bad boy was dropped under the hood
of the short lived and pretty honestly sick
yet kind of boring looking fifth gen Pontiac GTO 2005.
It was also in the even sicker Chevy Trailblazer SS
and the positively most sick Saab 97X0.
It also made 400 or so horsepower and torque.
You know what would be cool?
A big front wheel drive car with a V8 under the hood.
Yeah, GM thought so too.
The LS4 was designed to fit in cars sideways
and I'm going to tell you what,
it went in a bunch of big old beefy boys in the 2000s.
Pontiac Grand Prix GXP, the Chevy Impala SS
and the Monte Carlo SS, just to name a few.
This bad boy pumped out 303 horsies and 323 torques.
A year after the LS4, came the hand built LS7,
introduced in 2006.
This seven liter masterpiece is capable of
stomping out 500 horsepowers and 407 pound feet of torque.
When shoved into it's main platform, the C6 Corvette Z06,
it'll do zero to 60 in a scant 3.5 seconds.
(engine revving)
Oh, and did I mention that this engine won Le Mans?
My buddy Fillipe did an episode
of Bumper To Bumper on it a while ago
on the actual Corvette C6R that won
the legendary endurance race.
Speaking of badassery, you might've seen this next one
plastered all over the pages
of muscle car magazines a couple of years back.
That's right, I'm talking about the LSX.
This clever girl pumps out 627 horsepowers
and 586 pound feet of torque.
What's even wilder is apparently,
this thing can hold as much as 2500 horsepower.
That's insane.
You're like, what do you even
need that for, driving to the moon?
Moving right along.
Next up is the LS3.
This scrappy little fella came out in 2008
and is a direct improvement on the LS2.
Good for cool 436 horsepowers and 424 pound feet of torques.
And it came in the C6 Corvette.
(engine revving)
The C6 ZR1 had a big old blower on top
making it an LS9 and they made 638 horsepowers
and 604 pound feet of torques.
I'm pretty sure that that's all of them.
That is everything they came in.
Chapter five.
Now it's not an LS anymore.
It's called the LT again, aka, give me a break GM.
Now, we've come to the current crop
of push rod GM V8 engines, the fifth gen, gen five V8s.
These puppies aren't called LSs anymore,
Chevy has reused the nomenclature yet again
by calling them LTs,
and they sure aint your uncle's old LT motor either.
The big difference over the previous gen four LSs,
direct injection, baby, that's right.
They've now officially combined
old school push rod design with direct injection.
Why is this a good thing?
Well, it makes them much more tunable
and improves fuel economy.
More power and more mileage, baby.
The new LT1 has 6.2 liters of displacement
and made 455 horsepowers and 455
to 460 pound feet of torques
in the C7 Corvette and the current gen Camaro SS.
But do you know what my absolute favorite version is?
The new LT2.
The absolute peak of all GM V8 technology,
wrapped up in a 6.2 liter lump
and specially designed to sit behind the driver
in the brand spanking new 2020 C8 Corvette.
The numbers, 490 horses, 465 pound feet of torque.
Not bad, Chevy, not bad.
The thing costs less than 60 grand
and this is just the first one.
There's been all kinds of rumors
and confirmations, it's hard to keep up.
It's gonna be sick.
Chevy has been very successful with this
kind of hare-brained scheme of just throwing
the latest tech into a good old fashioned
simple American push rod V8.
What can't they do?
Chapter six.
LS swap the world.
Okay guys.
It's been a long road, but we're finally here, all right?
Now, we all know what kind of LS engines are out there.
But now it's time to break out the big guns.
The reason why all walks of tuning life
love this American motor
is possibly the best engine swap engine ever.
Used LSs are super plentiful and can be had for super cheap
and so can their new parts.
The LS is the gift that keeps on frickin giving.
People even put their parts,
like their throttle bodies and coil packs on other cars.
Here's the benefits.
Because LS engines are push rod engines,
they've got smaller cylinder heads
than overhead cam engines.
Meaning you've got a lot of displacement
that doesn't take up a lot of space.
Weight is also very crucial here.
LSs can often weigh around the same as
or even less than some of the iconic
engines that they replaced.
An LS3 crate motor is around 420 pounds, dude.
A 13B rotary, is over 400 pounds.
The original 2JZ GTE from the super weighs 650 pounds.
With all their low end torque,
LSs can push a car out of corners sooner
or light up the rear tires easier
and they don't always need a bunch of revs to do it.
That's good for longevity.
Keep it low, keep it running.
Here's the thing.
The LSs didn't just come as an all aluminum,
high compression performance V8.
(engine sound)
A lot of LSs go by a confusing system
of engine codes that are all iron block
and came in pretty much every GM truck or SUV
which makes them very plentiful,
very easy to find and most importantly, very cheap.
The fact that you can take a junkyard iron block LS
out of a plain jane Chevy Suburban
and toss it in something completely
different like a 240 or something
is what makes it so amazing.
I'm talking RX7s, RX8s, Supras, E30s, E36s, E46s,
old Volvos, frickin old truck builds.
(engine revving)
The LS is maybe not the most exciting swap,
but it is exciting and it just makes a lot of sense.
For those of you out there with deeper pockets,
why not swap in a brand new LS3, LSX or LT1.
You don't have to go looking
for crashed Corvettes in the junk yard,
you can buy them literally from GM at Walmart.com.
The LS3's GM part number is 19257230.
You can have a fully assembled,
ready to swap engine delivered directly to your door
in the same cart as toilet paper, literally.
There's even a frickin festival devoted to it, two of them.
It's called LS Fest.
(engine revving and tires screeching)
It's like the burning man of cars but with more nudity.
I'm looking at you, Odi Bakchis.
This engine has united all corners of the car world.
It's brought together muscle car stars,
drift freaks, track punks, crankensteins,
drag boys, time and tag geeks,
booze creeps, burnout wizards, (engine revving) and more.
Everyone can nerd out together.
So, go out there, get one and throw it
into something that it don't belong in.
More power, baby, stickers.
There's no better way to tell people
how much more power you're dealing with
than with a bunch of stickers that say "Mo Powa Babeh."
(mumbles) Baby.
Block mo powa babeh.
Oh, classic mo powa babeh.
Including my favorite one, mo powa babeh on board
to let the world know
that you have a child and they are strong and buff.
Mo powa babeh.
Really excited about these stickers.
They're available at DonutMedia.com.
Go get yourself some
and subscribe to our mailing list
so you don't miss any of the newest drops.
(beeping)
Thank you guys so much for watching Up To Speed
and everything else on Donut.
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