If it was easy, there wouldn't be a lot of money to be made. Some new, very thin, but effective gasket material. Sounds like there is, and will be, some money to be made there. Racing engines, alone, get torn down and rebuilt quite regularly and the Gen V, sooner or later, WILL be raced.

 

Thanks so much Trevor. The rtv is no big deal. The reusable gaskets are nice but expensive and you still needed to seal critical joints with rtv.

 

The waterpump on the side is quite the change. I love the coated bearings. Is that flywheel from an auto or manual?

 

Auto

 

Any issue with offset rockers, possible valve guide wear, or valves themselves? Hope there's no repeat of the LS7 nonsense here.

 

Thanks for the pictures of the tear down.
Always nice to see the inner workings and how they differ from what we are used to with the LSx series.

 

Right. Attn. mods.

 

Mmm. 6.2 is the limit unless you stroke it. Will they sleeve it to blow it? 5.5 blown?
Maybe ALMS will force stock bore stroke.

 

I apologize, but I did not get a picture of the cylinder head with the rockers in place before the engine was torn down. With respect to the valve covers, I have added some pictures to our album that shows the back of the valve cover. Since crankcase breathing has been a problem on past LS-based engines, I would expect that the stacks are for added crankcase ventilation. You can see that the inside of the cover is still low profile, but they have a few holes cut to allow for breathability. All of our LT1 crate engines came with a basic red plug where the oil fill hole is located. I would expect that it is sealed up on the dry-sump Z51 applications, just like on the LS7. I'm not certain why an oil fill neck and cap are not included.

When you look at the water pump, you can see two pre-drilled and tapped holes on the front of it. I think GM is looking to use one water pump for all iterations of this engine. For the LT1, the water pump did not have to be kicked off to the side (assuming no restrictions with the engine in the car). Makes you wonder if a tensioner will be bolted in place on the water pump for a future engine platform (think forced induction).

For valve guides and wear, I think only time will tell. I would expect that GM took the LS7's issues into consideration.

You can see that GM no longer exposes the cylinder liners in the block. When you look at any of the aluminum LS-based blocks, you can see the thickness of the sleeves. GM has concealed it on the LT1 block. If you have ever seen an LS3 block bare, you will understand why. GM has a lot of core shift in the blocks, so you can look at an LS3 deck and see that the sleeves are offset. You may have .070" on one side and .045" on the other side. GM casts all of their LS aluminum blocks with the sleeves in place, FYI, so they are not installed after the fact. Not sure if there is an additional goal in how the sleeves are cast in place on the LT1 other than not knowing how thin the liners may get. The 6.2L LSA block has the same issue with offset cylinders and liners, and it's a factory supercharged engine. Only time will tell what GM has in store for a boosted C7!

We just completed some engine dyno testing with a 6.2L LSA, so it is coming off of the dyno now. The LT1 is next in line! We will certainly post a video of the LT1 making a pull!

Let us know if you have any other questions.

Trevor
Texas Speed & Performance

 

Thanks for your time and info. I hope the moderators move this thread to a dedicated Tech section. Look forward to your posts.

 

Great info TexSpeed. Keep it comin'!

And yes, it's time for a tech section.

 

I wonder how VVT will affect power/torque I know VTEC was great for making ''torque'' out of a 4 bangers 1.8L. Its help both end but it also a restriction in some other area. For instance supra guys always canceled VVTI on 98 and + 2JZ. What worries me about the LTx is direct injection will be a major problem at one point, Its already operating at very high pression and cannot reallly upgrade the needles or triples the fuel pressure as far as i could tell. i wonder how tuner's shop will go around this???
looking forward to see how LT1 will do against LSx which is the best GM engine series so far!

 

VVT is an excellent setup on the later model trucks and 2010+ L99 (automatic) Camaro SS. It does give you the best of both worlds. All VVT does is allow you to adjust the position (i.e. advance or retard) of the camshaft in the block while the engine is running. We have done back-to-back dyno pulls on our chassis dyno on cammed VVT engines. We would make a pull with VVT essentially turned off, and we would make another pull with VVT working. The difference in the power curve is dramatic. It can also help in those times when piston-to-valve clearance is limited. You can retard the cam to gain some intake p-to-v clearance, but you certainly have to keep in mind how this will adjust your overall power curve.

We are happy to share all of our findings with our fellow Corvette Forum members! A new generation Corvette is very exciting, as is a new engine platform. A lot of members are technically based and know the LS-based engines very well, so most are curious what goes into the new LT1. We will continue to share our findings as we progress. All of this will translate into lots of go-fast goodies for your new Corvette!

 

Do you think you will need to rework the fuel pump lobe on the cam to provide more volume/pressure?

 

I think that will be better determined once we start adding some power to it. I would expect that we will play with this during our testing just to see how the engine and fuel pressure are affected. I fully expect the factory injectors to cover a good jump in power, but we will learn more as we get further and further into testing. We will also want to make sure that if fuel pressure is ever boosted that the factory components can still safely handle it.

 

A few more pics added!

 

The crank is forged?

 

No, neither the crank nor the rods are forged.

 

awsome

 

Thanks moderators for starting the C7 tech. section and moving this thread here. Yoo de bess.