Newbie here fellas...

Looking for a C5 Corvette for wife...and see that the C5 got the LS1 engine in 2001. What is difference between LS and LS1 aside from 5hp??

Any model year to stay away from for reliability reasons??

Thanks for any help.

Bob

 

Not sure what engine you're thinking about. The '01 had the LS1 as did the '97 - '00. The 5hp picked up for '01 mostly came from adopting the LS6 intake manifold for all engines instead of just the Z06.

Charlie

 

I've always considered an LS to be any of the GenIII v-8's, including the LS1.

I think that in addition to the manifold, the cam in the 01+ cars is a little more mild.

 

The LS1 was installed in all model year C5s - 1997 through 2004 with the exception of the Z06. The Z06 was introduced in model year 2001 and all Z06s have the LS6 engine. Also, several enhancements were made to the LS1 engine in model year 2001:

Model Year 2001 Press Release - More Performance...

The Millennium Motor - Inside C5’s, LS1 Engine.

Ruthless Pursuit of Power - GM brings us the next GEN III: LS6

Ruthless Pursuit of Power: The Sequel

Book Review: Chevy LS1/LS6 Performance, Christopher P. Endres, HPBooks 2003.

 

Maybe this will help you ...

In the early 1960s General Motors went to a system for coding Regular Production Options (RPO) with 3 character codes.

If you look at the options installed on your Corvette you will notice the 3 letter code (such as F45 or FE1 for one of the possible suspension options).

In GENERAL (there are exceptions to every rule) Chevrolet Division uses an "L" as the first letter of an engine option. The other two positions can be letters or numbers. Hence, in Corvette history there have been such legendary engines as the L88 and LT5. Our generation of the Corvette has either an LS1 engine or an LS6 engine. The LS6 is factory installed only in the Z06. Either can be identified by looking at the 8th position of your VIN number. A "G" indicates the car came from the factory with the LS1, and an "S" indicates the car had an LS6 factory installed. Obviously ther is nothing stopping an owner from later installing a different engine than the factory put in.

As a side note, historically Chevy has used a "Z" in the first position of the RPO to indicate a "performance" option package. The "Z28" package on the Camaro was so well regarded that eventually the option name was adopted for the car itself if so equipped. In 1963 (and that year only ... well ... heh heh ... until 2001) Chevy offered an option package for the Corvette called Z06 ( Z zero six ... though people say "Z oh six"). That package provded the car with a fuel injected (yes, in 1963 Chevy had fuel injected engines available) engine called L84 (327 cu in), upgraded brakes (drum in those days), a 36 gallon fuel tank, and some other items. Only 199 1963 Z06 equipped Corvettes were built. The cars became so legendary in the Corvette world that Chevy revived the Z06 code as the name for the "performance" version of the Vette first released in 2001 with the LS6 engine.

The current generation Corvettes are offered with either an LS2 engine, or for the Z06 the LS7 engine.

HTH

Steve