- So, we've all been inside, right? We've been tinkering with our cars, getting them ready for that
first drive of the summer. Well, not me, buddy. I mean, I've been going stir crazy, making videos in my empty garage. I haven't turned a wrench in months and baby boy, I need a
project, something big. Something I can really sink my teeth into, like an engine swap, yeah
man, that's just the ticket. An engine swap. What engine should I choose? Something turbo? Something kooky? No, no, no, the choice is obvious. (engine revving) You can't spell Chevrolets
without these two letters, a sleeper without them is just eeper. It's been a long time coming and we're finally going to do it boy. You asked for this and you should be more careful about what you ask for. (engine revving) (tires screeching) (engine revving) This is everything you need
to know to get up to speed on the LS engine, mother (beeping). That's fun. (upbeat music) You can't talk about the LS
and not mention the Corvette. Thanks to our friends at Omaze, you can now enter for your chance to win a 2020 Corvette Stingray. That's a C8, baby. With taxes and shipping included. If that's not good enough, you also get $20000 cash
for some sick wheels or some new suspension or just like gas. That's right, you don't need
to get your hearing checked, you heard me correctly my friend. You could win a brand new
2020 Corvette Stingray Z51. That's 495 buff horses, a sub three second zero to 60 and all you have to do is hop over to Omaze.com/donut and enter
for your chance to win. Best of all, in my personal opinion, when you donate to enter, you're also supporting the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA. Now, this place is very special to me because as a lot of you guys know, I had a heart attack about six months ago and this is the place that I went to get cardiac rehab
after my heart attack. So, it's a great cause and you might win an awesome car and some cash to boot. So, hurry up and head over to
Omaze.com/donut and enter now. (engine starting) (laughing) This thing is very, very cool, dude. (beeping) What do owners of Volvo
240s, resto mod muscle builds and FD RX7s with blown engines have in common besides great taste? They've all been asked the same question, you gonna LS swap that thing? You gonna LS swap that thing? This week, we're not talking about a car, we're talking about engines, baby and not just any piston pusher. This mill is one of General
Motor's greatest legacies. A proven possessor of
reliability, power and potential. We're going to cover
everything about the Chevy LS. What do all the numbers mean? Which ones came in which cars? Which one should you swap into your 240? So, let's turn the clocks back a bit. Chapter one. Humble small block beginnings. One sunny day, in the spring of 1992, the top brass at GM gathered in the company's secretive test site, the Milford Proving Grounds
outside of Detroit, Michigan. They were there to figure out what nearly 50 years of V8 engineering had come to in the roaring early 90s. Like the chart topping song
by Boys To Men that year, was this going to be the end of the road for traditional push rod small block V8s? ♪ Cause we've come to
the end of the road ♪ ♪ No I can't let go ♪ ♪ You belong to me ♪ ♪ You belong to you ♪ ♪ You belong to me ♪ (beeping) A blind test was arranged. Two nearly identical black C4 Corvettes. These cars were prepped for day of bashing on GM's massive open skid
pad dubbed The Black Lake. That is so like Norwegian metal. They weren't entirely identical however. Corvette A was equipped
with an updated take on the classic GM push rod V8 meaning that there's one
cam shaft in the middle pushing on rods that actuate valves while corvette B was rocking
an overhead cam design meaning that there are two
camshafts above each cylinder turned via a timing belt. It's more modern and much more complex. They did burnouts and drifty
things for like 12 hours and then started discussing which felt the best and the most thrilling. Now, the executives really
dug how one of the Corvettes pulled as soon as they
put their foot down. Fast responding, good old
American torque spurs. Reception for the other
vet wasn't as glowing. The revs had to be held pretty high to stay in the power band. Yeah, it was really fun,
it sounded really good, but it was not as immediately thrilling. The preferred engine was in Corvette A, it was a simpler push rod V8, not the fancier new
dual overhead cam motor. So, then and there, it was settled. From here on out, GM
would continue engineering and developing the push rod V8. Chapter two. How to create something entirely new. Let's take a second and
clarify all this gen business. Gen one covers all 350-ish
cubic inch small blocks built from the mid-50s all
the way up until the 90s. Now, gen two engines are the 5.7 liter V8s built briefly in the early
to mid 90s, known as the LTs. All right. So, back to the narrative. Behind the scenes, in the mid to late 90s, GM was looking to carry on push rod technology into the 21st century. The next Chevy V8 needed
to hit several important but seemingly contradictory goals. With ever tightening emission standards, improving fuel economy was a must, but the new engine still
had to beat the competitors in both horsepower and reliability. Now, that is a tall order and I should know about a tall order because my momma made one
when she called up God. She said, hello God, I'd like a son, make him abut 6'3 and handsome as hell. God was like, anything for
my favorite angel, Liz. My mom, she's an angel. So, who would GM bring in to
sew the whole thing together? Well, a drag racing legend of course. Ed Koerner, GM's power train
VP of engineering at the time was a V8 savant who also held a frickin NHRA drag racing record. That rules. He was picked by the executive director of GM power train, Tom Stevens and entrusted with the job of
developing the gen three V8 with one catch, it could share no parts with the previous gen motors. Oh, hey there, Ed, here's
a couple key traits for this new engine we were
talking about the other day. Yes, you get decent mileage. Yep, yep, okay. Be cheaper and easier to produce than what we've made in
the past, don't you know? And be able to go under the hood of essentially any GM vehicle. Yep, yep, yep, uh-huh, uh-huh. Including front wheel
drive, don't you know? It's a tall order boss, but just like when James
Pumphrey's mom, Liz hit up God and asked for a son that was
6'3, I think I can do it. Him and his team who
are called the super six went forth and came up with
something quite special indeed. Chapter three. A new generation is born. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, announcing to the world,
the brand spanking new gen three small block
V8 from Chevy, the LS. (shouting) First debuting under the hood of the then brand new C5 Chevy Corvette. The LS1 was an engineering masterpiece. The LS1 made around 350
horsepower in the Corvette. (engine revving) Not a big increase over the
previous gen two engine, but the LS1 was much lighter because it was all aluminum, baby. Had way better cooling properties, making it more heat efficient. It was stronger than the old LTs. And the engineers even
said that the stock OEM aluminum heads were more on par with aftermarket performance
heads of the past. That's what you get when you let hot rodders build a car for you. Good job, Chevy. The LS1 was an instant hit but it wasn't long before
GM offered something with, I believe it's pronounced
a bit more oomph, because why the frick not? It was also time to start confusing people because they didn't call
the second LS the LS2, that would make too much frickin sense. Debuting in the C5Z06, the second LS motor was called the LS6. That makes sense. Z06, LS6, where's all the confusion? Just sit tight buddy, it
gets real crazy later on. (engine revving) The LS6 sported a healthy boost in power while sharing basically the
same architecture as the LS1. The main improvements were
a bigger intake manifold, higher compression ratio,
a more aggressive camshaft and some goodies to approve
on track reliability. Initially, it punched out 385 horsepower and 385 pound feet of torque. That's right, a perfect horsepower. But later on, they
bumped it up to 400 even. They also put this motor
in the Cadillac CTSV, aka, my favorite Caddy. While other manufacturers were
spending boo koo buckanaros on more complex overhead cam engines, GM was proving that old fashioned tech could still get her done. But they had to keep pushing the limit. It was time for the next
generation of LS engines to take charge and do
the old push rod proud. Chapter four, building upon greatness. The new gen four Chevy V8 now encompassing more modern technology, like variable valve timing, active fuel management,
flux fuel capability, also known as E85, baby. The first place that this
tech made an appearance was in the third LS engine. The six liter LS2, because two comes after six. I mean, yeah, I can
see why it's confusing. (engine revving) This bad boy was dropped under the hood of the short lived and
pretty honestly sick yet kind of boring looking
fifth gen Pontiac GTO 2005. It was also in the even
sicker Chevy Trailblazer SS and the positively most sick Saab 97X0. It also made 400 or so
horsepower and torque. You know what would be cool? A big front wheel drive car
with a V8 under the hood. Yeah, GM thought so too. The LS4 was designed
to fit in cars sideways and I'm going to tell you what, it went in a bunch of big
old beefy boys in the 2000s. Pontiac Grand Prix GXP,
the Chevy Impala SS and the Monte Carlo
SS, just to name a few. This bad boy pumped out 303
horsies and 323 torques. A year after the LS4,
came the hand built LS7, introduced in 2006. This seven liter masterpiece is capable of stomping out 500 horsepowers
and 407 pound feet of torque. When shoved into it's main
platform, the C6 Corvette Z06, it'll do zero to 60 in
a scant 3.5 seconds. (engine revving) Oh, and did I mention that
this engine won Le Mans? My buddy Fillipe did an episode of Bumper To Bumper on it a while ago on the actual Corvette C6R that won the legendary endurance race. Speaking of badassery, you
might've seen this next one plastered all over the pages of muscle car magazines
a couple of years back. That's right, I'm talking about the LSX. This clever girl pumps out 627 horsepowers and 586 pound feet of torque. What's even wilder is apparently, this thing can hold as
much as 2500 horsepower. That's insane. You're like, what do you even need that for, driving to the moon? Moving right along. Next up is the LS3. This scrappy little fella came out in 2008 and is a direct improvement on the LS2. Good for cool 436 horsepowers
and 424 pound feet of torques. And it came in the C6 Corvette. (engine revving) The C6 ZR1 had a big old blower on top making it an LS9 and
they made 638 horsepowers and 604 pound feet of torques. I'm pretty sure that that's all of them. That is everything they came in. Chapter five. Now it's not an LS anymore. It's called the LT again,
aka, give me a break GM. Now, we've come to the current crop of push rod GM V8 engines,
the fifth gen, gen five V8s. These puppies aren't called LSs anymore, Chevy has reused the
nomenclature yet again by calling them LTs, and they sure aint your
uncle's old LT motor either. The big difference over
the previous gen four LSs, direct injection, baby, that's right. They've now officially combined old school push rod design
with direct injection. Why is this a good thing? Well, it makes them much more tunable and improves fuel economy. More power and more mileage, baby. The new LT1 has 6.2 liters of displacement and made 455 horsepowers and 455 to 460 pound feet of torques in the C7 Corvette and
the current gen Camaro SS. But do you know what my
absolute favorite version is? The new LT2. The absolute peak of all GM V8 technology, wrapped up in a 6.2 liter lump and specially designed
to sit behind the driver in the brand spanking
new 2020 C8 Corvette. The numbers, 490 horses,
465 pound feet of torque. Not bad, Chevy, not bad. The thing costs less than 60 grand and this is just the first one. There's been all kinds of rumors and confirmations, it's hard to keep up. It's gonna be sick. Chevy has been very successful with this kind of hare-brained
scheme of just throwing the latest tech into a good old fashioned simple American push rod V8. What can't they do? Chapter six. LS swap the world. Okay guys. It's been a long road, but
we're finally here, all right? Now, we all know what kind
of LS engines are out there. But now it's time to
break out the big guns. The reason why all walks of tuning life love this American motor is possibly the best
engine swap engine ever. Used LSs are super plentiful
and can be had for super cheap and so can their new parts. The LS is the gift that
keeps on frickin giving. People even put their parts, like their throttle bodies
and coil packs on other cars. Here's the benefits. Because LS engines are push rod engines, they've got smaller cylinder heads than overhead cam engines. Meaning you've got a lot of displacement that doesn't take up a lot of space. Weight is also very crucial here. LSs can often weigh around the same as or even less than some of the iconic engines that they replaced. An LS3 crate motor is
around 420 pounds, dude. A 13B rotary, is over 400 pounds. The original 2JZ GTE from
the super weighs 650 pounds. With all their low end torque, LSs can push a car out of corners sooner or light up the rear tires easier and they don't always need
a bunch of revs to do it. That's good for longevity. Keep it low, keep it running. Here's the thing. The LSs didn't just
come as an all aluminum, high compression performance V8. (engine sound) A lot of LSs go by a confusing system of engine codes that are all iron block and came in pretty much
every GM truck or SUV which makes them very plentiful, very easy to find and most
importantly, very cheap. The fact that you can take
a junkyard iron block LS out of a plain jane Chevy Suburban and toss it in something completely different like a 240 or something is what makes it so amazing. I'm talking RX7s, RX8s,
Supras, E30s, E36s, E46s, old Volvos, frickin old truck builds. (engine revving) The LS is maybe not
the most exciting swap, but it is exciting and it
just makes a lot of sense. For those of you out
there with deeper pockets, why not swap in a brand
new LS3, LSX or LT1. You don't have to go looking for crashed Corvettes in the junk yard, you can buy them literally
from GM at Walmart.com. The LS3's GM part number is 19257230. You can have a fully assembled, ready to swap engine delivered
directly to your door in the same cart as
toilet paper, literally. There's even a frickin festival
devoted to it, two of them. It's called LS Fest. (engine revving and tires screeching) It's like the burning man of
cars but with more nudity. I'm looking at you, Odi Bakchis. This engine has united all
corners of the car world. It's brought together muscle car stars, drift freaks, track punks, crankensteins, drag boys, time and tag geeks, booze creeps, burnout wizards,
(engine revving) and more. Everyone can nerd out together. So, go out there, get one and throw it into something that it don't belong in. More power, baby, stickers. There's no better way to tell people how much more power you're dealing with than with a bunch of stickers
that say "Mo Powa Babeh." (mumbles) Baby. Block mo powa babeh. Oh, classic mo powa babeh. Including my favorite one,
mo powa babeh on board to let the world know that you have a child and
they are strong and buff. Mo powa babeh. Really excited about these stickers. They're available at DonutMedia.com. Go get yourself some and subscribe to our mailing list so you don't miss any of the newest drops. (beeping) Thank you guys so much
for watching Up To Speed and everything else on Donut. We upload a video every single day. To make sure you don't miss anything, hit that subscribe button, follow Donut across
social media, @DonutMedia. If this is your first
Donut video, welcome, if it's your 100th, welcome back. Follow me on Instagram @JamesPumphrey to keep up with what
we've got going on here. I love you.
