The Chevy LS

“1967 Corvette LS1” by aresauburn™ is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

By: Jeevesh Kanhai, Reporter

The Chevy LS has been favored and well-known in the car community and everyone is swapping it into their car.

So what is it?

The Chevy LS 1 was first produced in 1997, powering the C5 Corvette. It was a 5.7L Aluminium block witch was good at cooling making 345 hp with 350 Ft-lbs. Later in 1999 Chevy released the cast iron version for Trucks and SUVs witch named Vortec. Stepping into 2001, Chevy improved the LS1 and made the LS6 which had the same architecture. But had a Bigger Intake manifold more Aggressive Camshaft to improve the on-track reliability making 385hp and 385ft-Lb. As the years went on The LS got better, by getting variable valve timing, Active Fuel Management, and by being flexible with different fuels.

“Andy Dee Crowne and Sam Thomas – 1964 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray at the 2017 Silverstone Classic Media Day (Photo 2)” by Dave Adams Automotive Images is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Why is it so famous?

The reason for the Chevy LS being so popular… It’s small. When someone says an engine is big they might not be talking about the size. Engines are always pumping in the air. And Displacement refers to how much air is going through an engine when the piston is going top to bottom. So the LS1 is 5.7L, 8 Cylinders, 3.62 inches of stroke, and 3.898 inches in Bore. And if we plug in these numbers and make this equation:

Displacement = pi(bore/2)2 x stroke x cylinders you will get 347 in3 converted to metric we get 5.7 L of air.

But how does the Ls keep such good Displacement while being smaller? V8

“Corvette C8 close Portrait” by Osajus Photography is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (Source: OSAJUS PHOTOGRAPHY)

engines nowadays have cams on top of the engine and the reason was becasue more air will get in and more valves per cylender  while the Ls uses a in block cam with two valves per cylender makeing it smaller and shorter. But more air is not good when it has a hard for air to move. And thats why the chevy ls is so good becasue 1. Its small so it can fit in 4 cylender rwd cars 2. Becasue it breathes good witch is good for turbochargeing and Superchargeing and 3. Relability becasue of the aluminum block.

So what now?

Sadly the Ls was re named to Lt when the 5th gen came but the 5th gen is direct fuel injected while still keeping the in-block cam makeing it more fuel efficent, Makeing it more tuner friendy and allowing it to have more mileage. You can find this engine is the c8 Corvette makeing 495 horsepower but this is all for the next generation of car modders like yours truely.