Best of Both Worlds: Building A GM Smallblock With A Modern LS Top - Horsepower S14, E7

[Music] today on horsepower it's the best of both worlds for you chevy guys when the ls motor came out in 97 it was a major milestone for gm and a big departure from tried and proven small blocks well like the 350. of course over the years we've seen some of the cool modifications you can make on this new age pushrod v8 the 1997 c5 was hailed as the car corvette was always meant to be an all-new ride from the ground up with an all-new engine the ls1 rated at 345 horsepower this groundbreaking gen 3 was a clean sheet of paper design with almost nothing in common with previous generations plus it launched a whole performance family of ls engines like the 500 horse ls7 built with components that just a few years ago were considered race only a far cry from chevy's first v8 the aluminum block ls was a triumph of modern technology and small block big displacement of course as everybody knows though there's no swapping parts between the ls and the previous generation small blocks until now that is you old school guys are going to love this we're going to show you how to build an engine that's old small block on bottom ls on top the secret is right here in this iron motown ls block from world products now they raise the deck height to the ls is 9240 so you can run any aftermarket ls intake manifold you want once the heads are on now here's where the real magic happened they designed the block to accept the ls cylinder head bolt pattern and water jackets now you can make more horsepower in a small block and have a performance advantage in certain racing classes that require a distributor driven ignition system now here's something else that's really cool the motor mount and oil pan are true to the original small block so dropping these things into early gm muscle cars or race cars is easy to do for the standard small block bottom end of our engine we're going with the crower 4340 forged crankshaft a set of their maxi light connecting rods and we'll make them up with these je inverted dome pistons now the camshaft well it's custom built by comp cams just for the motown block and we'll tell you more about it later but i can tell you these bottom end components are going to make our small block 380 cubic inches now over here is the ls top-end part world war hawk cylinder heads single-plane victor junior intake and an efi setup put together by hal you can get the block bare or already machined like ours so we can get right down to the business of building the engine now i can drop in their crankshaft that has a stroke of 3.562 inches check out the machining work that crower did on this thing not a sharp edge anywhere it's that attention to detail that makes a big difference next we can check the end play and we're good here with 5 000 clearance and before we install all the main caps it's always a good idea to use a piece of plastic gauge to make sure we've got the correct bearing clearance and at three thousandths we're good here too the block uses splayed four bolt mains and you can get them two ways nodular or like these 1045 billet and to keep them securely in place a combination of bolts and studs with nuts now torque specs are 100 foot pounds for the inner fasteners 70 for the outers well now we're making some progress and here's where the old and the new come together literally these je pistons are ls all the way and that coating on the skirt is to prevent scuffing now we're hanging them with floating pins on a set of crower small block chevy rods our ring sets came from total seal and they need to be filed to fit now since this motor is going to be used on the street we're setting the top gap to 18 the bottom gap to 15. these je pistons come with double pin oilers double valve reliefs and the flat domes and they'll give us a compression ratio of 10 to 1. our custom-built camshaft for motown ls block came from comp cams and it's got some pretty unique features on the back they include a distributor drive gear the lobes are all based off of an ls profile and the journal size let's just say it fits in a standard small block chevy cam bearing now up top they even include an eccentric for a fuel pump now when it comes to lubing up a hydraulic roller camshaft and sticking it in there's two different ways you can do it on a hydraulic roller camshaft a molle based lube is fine on the distributor gear but not on the journals and lobes here you can oil the cam outside the engine and make a mess or carefully install the cam and oil the lobes through the lifter bores and the journals will get oil when you prime the engine the double roller timing chain is made for the stock small block chevy next up are the lifters now i like washing them in a clean parts washer to get rid of any garbage so they're clean when they go in the lifter bores now after blowing them off with air we can soak them in oil and use this time to finish up the bottom end and for that good old small block chevy stuff from moroso including the pickup and high volume oil pump and after this gasket with compression stops from our fell pro kit a six quart street strip oil pan finally this oil filter adapter we got from mr gasket now once i get this thing on we're going to rotate the motor back upright and get started on the top end so make sure you guys don't go anywhere [Music] we're back with our hybrid ls engine build using a world block designed to accept tried and proven small block bottom end parts we hung ls style pistons onto standard rods and installed a custom cam with ls lobes and small block friendly add-ons now in case you're wondering why build a motor like this we'll consider that the small block bottom end will handle a lot more power than most engine builders give it and the ls top-end is famous for its breathing characteristics so the power potential is really there and this will be an engine that will drop on the stock motor mounts of a lot of classical muscle cars hey what a conversation piece at the car show too bad they can't see how these comp ls roller lifters install directly into the block instead of the heads like in an oels they also won't see the special valley cover we bolt with the block which is actually a spacer that straddles the top of the block and anchors the top of the heads it also has a mounting location for the small block distributor we loaded up our warhawk heads with a set of manly stainless steel valves measuring up at 208 intake 160 exhaust and held in place with some comp dual springs by the way you can get these heads with either 64 or 72 cc combustion chambers we went with 64's to maintain that 10 to 1 compression ratio these heads have the same ls 15 degree center line and rocker arm attachment angles 255 intake runners 87 cc exhaust ports the push rod length is 8 200 inches and we knew that at the beginning that's because all these parts are designed to work together just like a top end engine package a little assembly lube on the push rods and the valve stems prevents premature wear now these heads are also designed to use stock ls style rocker arms and that's the route we're taking plus we're even going to use the stock valve covers to button it up now when it comes to the intake manifold you've got a few options and we opted for victor junior single plane intake it's got a basic rpm range of 3 500 to 7 000 and it accepts a standard four-barrel square board carburetor well we're going to use the carburetor in the dyno later when we drop the engine into the camaro we'll probably switch over to a throttle body injection system like this one from howe theirs comes with a wiring harness fuel pump ecm and best of all this thing is loaded with a prom that's calibrated to match your motor to keep the water flowing through our hybrid ls we'll use this summit electric water pump and follow that with this ati super damper if you've been following this build you probably noticed that there's no outlet on the intake manifold or the front of the block so how are we going to circulate water through this thing well it's pretty simple the freeze plug has been removed on the front of the cylinder head and this adapter plate has been installed it's tapped for a three-quarter pipe fitting which will run to an fittings now the a inline will go from that up to this moroso remote thermostat housing which accepts a standard small block water neck to fire off this hybrid ls we're installing an msd pro billet distributor and defeated a holley hp flowing 750 cffs go ahead none of the usual horsepower predictions here this is uncharted territory for us so far so good though and after the usual warm-up period we're ready for our initial run at 6000 rpm 542 horsepower 496 foot-pounds of torque at 51. wow we're still climbing on the horsepower before a pool at 6 500 though let's see what two degrees of timing does [Music] what do you think i think it picked up her lost i don't think it picked up but we'll see wow 504 foot pounds that's a nice little motor hey we'll keep playing with it for a while to see if we get more but you know that's a real strong finale for this new and old world small block [Music] say what kind of muffler do you want in your street machine unless it's an off-road vehicle like that mustang track car you got to have something and a lot of choices these days so we thought it'd be kind of cool to look inside the design of several cherry bomb mufflers at different price levels and then using our engine dyno see how much they free up horsepower compared to stock in fact this is an oer or stock replacement muffler the exhaust comes in here flows through this large perforated tube out here and comes back in through the smaller gas holes that control the sound before it travels through another perforated tube and on out it's a pretty restrictive design and tell you what we'll use a pair of these for our baseline we're using one of our trusty mule motors for all the runs a carbureted ls now exhaust notes are going to sound different in a vehicle than here in the dyno but we are going to measure decibel levels while measuring horsepower up to six grand all right you guys ready to go let's do it since matt graves brought us all the mufflers we decided to let him stay and watch us play very quiet at 107 decibels with an average peak horsepower of 472. cherry bomb has been disturbing the p since 1968 thanks to its first muffler the glass pack now flow is directed through these louvers here into the fiberglass material which cuts down the high decibels now it gets that famous popping sound because well there's no baffling inside we're going to test a pair of these next i love that old sound all 129 decibels worth and at 480 horsepower that's a gain of 8 over stock cherry bomb's economy turbo muffler is similar to the oer and quiet like one but it has three larger perf tubes to free up more flow let's give this one a shot on the dyno neck a good bit quieter than the glass pack and a few less ponies but still five over the baseline the smaller the muffler body the less sound control you're going to get cherry bomb's extreme muffler only uses this offset wing to deflect sound so it's their loudest muffler now it's ideal for race and radical street use like the extreme the pro muffler here also uses an offset wing but it also has additional sound chambers and a longer design to control more sound tell you what let's see what we get with a pair of these next very quiet at 118 dbs four ponies and some change over the stock horsepower well finally cherry bomb's vortex now it uses all the principles of the other mufflers and these flow dividers here that push the exhaust through these perforated holes through steel wool and fiberglass to eliminate that drone that we all hate but at the same time there's as much flow in here as you get in a four inch pipe so this one's made for all-out flow and all-out sound control let's try them out [Music] no big surprise the vortex allowed the most power 480.4 horsepower while several decibels quieter than the glass pack so while the cherry bombs beat out the stock mufflers in the horsepower department the top performers were the newer vortex and the retro glass pack so how do you want it want to politely blow past the other cars or disturb the piece at the same time your call i guess we'll be right back [Music] you're watching horsepower for a dvd copy of this episode just go to powerblocktv.com and order your copy for just 5.95 plus shipping and handling start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door from the power block [Music] well it's time for hot parts and here's a hot new version of a good old carburetor that got our attention it's called the sv1 from pro systems and it uses this large single venturi design for improved atomization over the traditional four barrel they claim you'll get quicker throttle response faster shift recoveries and harder launches now they've got them for gasoline alcohol and e85 with a variety of flow rates up to 2600 cffs also with a variety of price tags here's a cool classy and functional way to dress up your dash it's a digital instrument system from dakota digital now in addition to your regular gauges like oil pressure and water temperature it's even got a built-in 0 to 60 timer quarter mile timer and high speed and rpm recalls now you can even set your high and low warning points on the gauges to let you know if you have a problem now they come with all the sending units and even a teal face plate if you don't like the blue they're a direct fit and they pretty much fit your budget with prices starting at 525 bucks why would anyone want to swap out a new torque converter from their 2010 camaro well how about for an improvement of five to seven tenths in their eighth mile ets that's what recent tests have proven with this 6l80e from performance torque converters has a billet cover special needle bearings inside and of course it's furnace braced but what's the price of those better track times well how about 900 bucks the only place you want one of these is on your zz crate engine this dui comes from performance distributors and features a melonized gear that works with hydraulic roller camshafts plus an optimized timing curve to give you more power throughout the complete rpm range now with this fifty thousand volt coil and dyna module you get a longer duration spark so you can gap your plugs at 55 thousands for a complete burn does this spark your interest you can get one for about 300 bucks if the camshaft is the brain of an engine then it's the drive system that puts that brain power into action jaisal's belt drive is the most accurate and durable you can get just ask the top race teams who use them they operate without lubrication and spin with less friction than chains or gear drive systems their systems come with a billet aluminum upper drive pulley with a high torque drive tooth configuration and a steel alloy crank pulley now you can get your system with this standard one-piece upper drive pulley or step up to one that's fully adjustable either way they've got them for a variety of big and small block applications with prices starting at around 700. well time for us to start turning out the lights because we're about out of here see you next time

Channel: Gunpowder & Gasoline

Views: 541,104

Keywords: powernation, powerblock, powernation tv, powerblock tv, how to, cars, trucks, do it yourself, gm, engine build, horsepower, small block, ls, ls engine, 350 small block chevy

Id: ifJUoOle0Xo

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021