Im looking for any information, pictures, or articles from any test vehicles or brochure information from back in 1970 regarding the LS7 454 (465HP) that was listed as an option early on but never built. I have an original early 70's crate LS7 454 and would like to built a 70 Vette M22 rockcrusher with it. I have heard different things regarding how GM was going to set this car up such as the following....


1: It was going to be a continuation of the L88 with the same hood, no options such as radio, and a/c.


2: It was going to have the normal big block hood and have the 427 L89 tri-power setup as the 1969 model (heard this was the picture in a brochure)


3: It was going to have the normal big block hood with a single four barrel carb.



All the paperwork I see shows this was listed at 465hp however the repro decal they make for this motor is the normal Turbo-Jet rounded decal listed as 460hp???? Dont get that one!!!!!

Any information on this or pictures would be great!!!!! This will be a slow build but want to know what direction im going (I want this to be exactly what GM had in mind but never released....just like whatever test car they made).

Thanks for any help....

 

If you or anyone else is interested I have a 1111465 ti distributor, you won`t find it in any books but it`s from the stillborn 1970 LS-7 project...send a PM if your a serious buyer.

 

What is different about this distributor? What is the "stillborn 1970 LS-7 project"? Is that referring to the test 1970 Corvette's GM had made?

 

http://superchevy.automotive.com/517...photos7-0.html

 

Thanks for the pic!!!! I guess it was going to be setup with the tri-power, I always liked that look. I guess the car would have used the stock big block hood with that setup however the L88 style hood looked a little more mean. I would like to see some pictures of the test cars GM used back then.

 

# Corvette built only one car with the LS7 engine. The editor of Sports Car Graphic drove it for 2500 miles and found it did the quarter mile in 13.8 seconds at 108 mph. GM cancelled the option even though the LS7 option is listed in some early 1970 sales literature. None were ever sold.

 

I never knew GM ever built a 70 LS7 vette.Does anyone have access to that article ?

 

I would like to see this article, do know what year and month it was? The magazine was called "Sports Car Graphic"? If anyone has it can they scan it and post it on here. Also does anyone know if they had pictures of the car with the article?

 

 

Can you post what year/month/magazine that was along with scanned copies of other pics and article?

thanks

 

LS7Vette,

There were only two magazines in the day that wrote about the up and coming 1970 LS7 Corvette that I'm aware of. Sports Car Graphic, March 1970 and Motor Trend, March 1970 issues. One car was built and tested in its production format.

The closest to this production option is the 1971 LS6 Corvette, which used several pieces from the stillborn LS7 option (as it was intended by Chevrolet in 1970!).

There are two more publications to get for more information. VETTE magazine May 1986 issue has Roger Huntington writing an article on the LS7 engine option, however his facts are somewhat muddled as he imparts his conjecture on why this engine failed to appear on the option list. He also uses ZL-1 pictures in place of the LS7 components in parts of the article.
The second magazine is Car Craft's Corvette series magazine Vol. 4, Number 3 1987 issue. This article is written by Wayne Scraba and is much more accurate in its content about the LS7 engine and also lists all the part #'s that were necessary to build a proper LS7 engine and were available at the time of this writing. He even acknowledges that several mechanical pieces were superceded by newer designs and part numbers from the original design of 1970, but this is probably as close as one could get.

By the way there were more than just this LS7 option intended for the 1970 model year Corvette, two more engines, the LT-2 and LJ-2 were also dropped prior to production.

I also have a friend with a March 1972 casting dated LS7 engine that he purchased from GM. It is configured slightly different than Chevrolet's intended option for 1970.

 

probably this crate motor.

 

Warren ,great info as usual.Does anyone have any of these articles that they can post.

 

From memory, my AIM manual also included all the pages for the LS7 with "Discontinued" stamped across, including the tri-power setup...

 

The tri-power set-up was not intended for use on the LS7 option, that set-up was for either the LT-2 or LJ-2. There are some specs on these two engine options, I believe in the 1970 owners manual.

 

Should make for a nice tribute car!

Not really.

The LS-7 engine intended for production (NOT the service engine that showed up in 1972-73) would have been very similar to the Chevelle LS-6 engine available in 1970 with the exception of closed chamber aluminum heads in place of the cast iron Chevelle units and a transistorized ignition system. It did not use the cowl induction hood from the L-88/ZL-1 cars and could be ordered with a radio. Air conditioning was not available.


As mentioned above, it would have the normal big block hood, but the induction system would have been a single four barrel Holley carburetor on a low rise aluminum manifold. It is interesting to note that this manifold was used on all the other solid lifter big blocks in 1970, but wasn't really needed as Camaros, Chevelles, and Novas had plenty of clearance... The only car that needed it was the Corvette and the engine that would have used it (the LS-7) wasn't produced for sale.

That's it.

The LS-7 was going to be a special high performance street engine... Contrary to the legend that has grown up around it.

It's true that there were two ratings that showed up. GM finally released a rating of 460 horsepower and that's what is printed in their literature so that is what I am inclined to believe. I do there was considerable time and effort made to certify the engine in time for the 1970 model year and it is possible that changes were made that reduced the rating over time.

Warren noted the two period magazines that feature the car. None have high quality photos that we are used to today, but they are passable and the information in the articles are pretty accurate.

Regards,

Stan Falenski

 

Warren,

LJ-1 and LJ-2 were 454 tripower versions of the L-68 and L-71 from 1969.

LT-2 was the 454 replacement for the ZL-1.

All of them were axed early in the planning process although reference to the LJ-1/LJ-2 did make it into the 1970 AIM.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened to these engines had GM held to their typical new model year for the Corvette in 1969... We might have actually seen some of these engines in a production car.

Regards,

Stan Falenski

 

The part number above as a over the counter service package engine,3965774 is correct and also carried a tag stating 'off road service package engine 100+ octane" I have the tag somewhere. It was discontinued as a production engine in the late 80`s and cost 2600.00 in 1988. Never sold as a complete engine. What it didn`t come with is manifolds, intake, waterpump, distributor, and clutch with bellhousing which is unlike the L88`s that had all the missing parts. And no aluminum parts either ie, heads or intake. I don't know the actual horsepower but I ran 11,4 in one of my 68 Camaros and told to go home as it was without a roll cage...I used similar parts as the Motor Trend LS7 Vette used except I had a spare L88 intake and used that on the engine along with Hooker Super comp headers.. My choice of distributors was a 1975 HEI to keep it simple. All 454`s were open chambered engines. Real HP was considered at 600 with a 3500 converter into a T400 driving 4.56 gears to be able to run in the 120+ MPH top time range with a 3500 lb Camaro. Its a wild engine. Recently updated with a set of Dart competition aluminum heads curtest my good friend George Delorian.......

I have a few pictures I can also add and with sound when I find them



http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/f...t=68RedLS7.flv

 

Stan,

I have a photograph of two real console data plates, one for LS7 and the other for LT-2.

It certainly would have made the '70 model year the envy of the musclecar period.

 

Warren,

Agreed... If GM had just let Chevrolet do their thing, 1970 would have been a great year!

Regards,

Stan Falenski