Jaxian

I was watching the video clip on Jay Leno's 8.2l ZO6RS and it made me wonder something. How did they get 500ci? That's what 8.2l works out to. I know the World Products Warhawk block with the tall deck, an extra .600 or so, can get to 481ci before running out of bore and stroke space. I thought the C5R block would have the same limitations and the standard deck height which I thought limited you 454ci.

Since Katech built the motor and they are active on the forums I was wondering if they could let us know or if it was some kind of secret. Meaning like was it some really cool machine work sleight of hand on a C5R block, or is this a new different block with bore centers bigger than 4.4?

I looked at the quoted hp number of 600 and also thought to myself, hmm, if you left a LS7 in the exact state of tune it's in and grew it from 427ci to 500ci it would end up with about 600hp. A reliable factory easy to do 600hp. I don't think they would just stroke the hell out of it, that wouldn't really keep with the theme of the car making it a low rpm torque monster, and I thought it would run out of stroke space before it got anywhere near 500ci.

My dream answer, and I know you couldn't say until next month if it was the case, was that the 8.2l 600hp motor in Leno's ZO6RS is a stock new LS9 from the new ZR1. It would pretty cool to have the first pre production one by a year or so, that sounds pretty Leno'esqe. Man if the new LS9 was an 8.2l 600+hp N/A motor that would be sweet beyond words for a track motor. Could just write off all the LS9 photos so far to a run in between an LS7, a Cadillac blower setup, and Photoshop.

Just wondering/bench racing although I know the real answer is probably a lot more straight forward and unexciting than some new mega cube factory block that would bolt into any LS(x) chassis. That would be xmas present time. Any ideas guys?

Halltech

Dart's new billet block with no liners.

Jaxian

Aww, see that's no fun. Makes sense though. So did they coat the pistons or something not to gall the aluminum walls of the block? Or is it a cast iron block? Ack. Most billet blocks I have seen don't have water jackets unless they are multi piece. Guess I will have to click on over to Dart's website and take a look at it. Sigh, there go my dreams of a 500ci easy factory mega-cube motor. Man that would have made a cool LS9.

Viper_Vette

Little off topic here. Your over in Santa Cruz, do you know Bruce Canepa aka Canepa Motors? Well their shop isnt far from you and they have a awesome facility. Not to mention high end racing/sports cars . Hint hint..

Chuck

Jaxian

I just moved over here at the very end of summer so to be honest don't know anyone automotive wise. I was actually feeling kind of out in the cold after building up contacts for chassis and engine work and stuff in the bay area for 20 years to have to start again. I will have to check his place out. Thanks for the tip.

I looked at the Dart LS block. Looks very neat, the water passages look kind of rudimentary, like drag race level, not endurance road race level, but it's only two pictures and I couldn't find any specs on it at all. The specifications area on the website only seems to list heads when I click on it. Actually no technical info on the block at all, or suggested MSRP. Hope they put up more stuff and more info on it's intended usage.

I had kind of seen the LSX as a max hp drag race type block and the Warhawk looked like it would make a good high hp road race or drag motor as they said they used a revised C5R water jacket as a reference point, and considering the differences between a LS7 water jacket and the C5R jacket that made me feel good if I was going to run a lot of power through it for more than a few second drag run. The heat build up of road racing a higher horsepower motor over a full HPDE event would really use that.

That article in one of the mags doing a direct compare between the LS7 and C5R blocks was great for all those small details that can end up making a big difference. Very detailed, was a good read. Plus all that little stuff you have to change on a C5R to use it as a street engine like the cam sensor stuff. Love the minutia.

Poor-sha

Katech is supposed to be offering this motor as a crate engine. Jason said it will be a direct bolt-in. I'm really curious to see what the cost will be.

I'd be very interested in seeing that article comparing the C5.R and LS7 blocks if anyone knows where to find it online.

mr.algaz

Its nice saying that you have a 427 engine rumbling under the hood, which seems almost the biggest engine on a daily driven car. But when it comes to saying 500 its a dozens of wooooooow's.

This is my dream engine and i am really working to get my hands on aproject for both of my cars the Orange Baby and the browny truck, one forced induction and the other NA...

OOO lalalala

Katech_Zach

When Katech went in search of more cubes in the development of the 8.2L engine, we turned to long-time local friend Dart. We took the existing architechture of Dart's LS billet block and made our own changes to accomodate a street car and the 4.500" stroke. You won't find information on this block on Dart's website, because it is only available to Katech in this configuration. To answer your question about the water jackets, they are different on the 8.2L than Dart's existing billet block which caters more to drag racing where water jackets are not as much of an issue. The 4.205" bore block is linerless. We enlisted the help of US Chrome for their spray bore NiCom coating, their proprietary version of Nikasil.

Pratt & Miller, Katech, and Dart are all privately owned companies. This engine has nothing to do with GM pre-production development.

Viper_Vette

Jaxian,
I grew up in your area Went to Aptos highschool back in the days. Heres Canepas website.
http://www.canepa.com/racing/racing.html

ECS tuned LSx

A 500ci N/A LSx motors is exactly what I would want for a track car with the ability to run slicks and a dry shot for occasional drag racing.

Unfortunately, I don't have my own 11pm TV show.
So, I'm going to have to wait for this type of combination to become affordable.

LPE turbos originally sold for $40k and now an EXTREMELY similar turbo system is available for around $8k.

418ci+ longblocks maxing out at around 600rwhp are available now for under $10k.
I look forward to 650-700rwhp forged longblocks becoming available for the same money.
Let the waiting begin.

Rare ZO7

Didn't Bob Lutz make a statment about the new Super Vette having a large cube motor? (larger than a 427). I keep thinking that the motor in the ZO6 mules might be intended for the CTS-v

Halltech

Sorry, but the SS is a mini-me 6.2 L motor with a rare aftermarket trick, a supercharger.

J HEBERT

441ci LS7s w/ heads that flow 400cfm on the intake are right around the corner, but who will have the intake to feed it? They should run around 12-15k depending on hardware options. Don't see this going below 10k w/o using compstar or other off-shore produced (read:CHINESE) crank and rods.