Ultimate LS Engine Overview

thanks for joining Otto Gill today I want to talk to you about the history of the LS engine how it's changed over time which ones might be best for your project which ones are the cheapest have the most power potential let's get started quick history lesson on the small-block Chevy engine it originally started as a generation 1 engine in 1955 that was the first v8 the Gen 2 also known as LT 1 came out in 92 but actually shared a lot of parts with the Gen 1 the LS engine that we're talking about today came out in 97 it's really good and then we had a generation 4 which is kind of like LS 2.0 and it's really really good so it all started in 1997 with that 5.7 liter LS one putting out 345 horsepower in the Corvette [Music] in 98 Chevrolet dropped the LS engine into the Camaro and Firebird with a slightly detuned engine making 305 horsepower but you can see now that the Corvette volume is way up and the Camaro and Firebird volume is pretty good so that's why these ls1 engines were pretty easy to find back in the day in 1999 no real changes on the car side but chevrolet dropped the v8 LS engine in some of their truck and SUV models and offered it in three engine displacements 4.8 liters 5.3 liters and 6 liters the 6 liter is typically found in the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks now all three of the engines at this point are using the cathedral port you can see I've got the little symbol on there the 5.3 engines that you see here were made more than anything else so those are really easy to find but look at the volume differences on this page look at the volume of truck engines compared to the volume of car engines so that truck volume is a total volume so there's probably some v6 is in there but this gives you an indication of why the truck engines are so easy to find and also keep in mind at this point that all the cylinder heads on all these engines are alumina except for the 99 and 2000 lq4 engines which actually had iron heads again no changes on the car side for 2000 but remember the truck engines are iron and the car engines are aluminum and the aluminum engines are hundred pounds give or take lighter than the truck engine so if you're really building a sporty vehicle you want to go for that aluminum engine but these early engines are still not that great compared to the gen Ford engine and I pick up a Gen 4 so let's keep going in 2001 chevrolet dropped the all new LS six into the Corvette zo6 with 385 horsepower ten and a half to one compression it had new intake manifold better cylinder heads redesigned combustion chamber higher compression ratio thin walled cast-iron exhaust manifolds a hotter camshaft which by the way makes a great swap for any LS engine that LS six camshaft tons of valve overlap for that great low P idle and of all the LS engines at this point the LS six is the one you want in 2002 big changes on the car side it's the last year for the Camaro the lq9 debuts on the Escalade on the truck side this is a high-output version of the six liter lq4 but it's still an iron block we also see the L 59 which is really just a flex fuel engine based on the LM seven and flex fuel just means that it can run on gasoline or 85 ethanol in 2003 we have the new L m4 which is an aluminum block version of the LM 7 which was available on some midsize SUVs like the trailblazer SS and the SSR the LM 4 unfortunately it was only available on a few models is pretty low volume and they're kind of difficult to find they only made up for a few years so really cool engine but hard to find if you're 11 this information please give me a thumbs up and think about subscribe in 2004 we see the GTO come out with a 350 horsepower version of the LS 1 as well as the Cadillac cts-v with this 400 horsepower version of the LS 6 and this is actually the last year of the LS 1 but good things are coming because next year we'll see the introduction of the generation 4 engine so believe it or not this whole project started out with me researching an LS engine swap for my 68 Camaro and I wanted to share my knowledge with you to try to help you make your project a little bit more badass or at a minimum give you some next-level car knowledge for 2005 we have generation 4 introduced the LS 2 engine is the first generation 4 it's introduced on the Corvette the GTO but also the Trailblazer SS and the SSR and the differences between the gen 4 and then gen 3 are pretty unnoticeable at first glance but the LS 2 has the better LS 6 2 for 3 heads a new intake design a lighter exhaust manifold and with the generation 4 we're going to start to see new technologies like displacement on demand which is called active fuel management you'll see that noted on the next pages also variable valve timing which is just really some fancy technology to adjust the valve timing to get more power and more efficiency the bore size for the generation 4 engines has also been increased to more point o inches and you may have noticed I also have the bore and stroke and compression ratio for every engine listed here and also the port shape so right about now is maybe when you're saying wow this is really good information hit that thumbs up subscribe if you want more of this M type of info the LS 2 is also found on a couple of trucks the Trailblazer SS and the L 76 which is out of Australian cars which unfortunately I'm not going to be talking about Australian cars on this video maybe another video at this point the LS 2 is really the best engine here but like I said there are better engines let's keep going a couple other things to know that just because the generation 4 engines are here will still gonna see generation 3 engines until 2007 and I did put trailblazer and SSR up in the car section I know they're not really cars but this pages are starting to get busy so forgive me in 2006 we see the introduction of the mighty 7 liter LS 7 on the Corvette zo6 with 505 horsepower you really need to read up more about this engine it's really insane there's a link down below in 2006 we also see the debut of the 6-speed 6l80 transmission with paddle shift this debuts on the Corvette and in a few years this is going to be on everything and please note that the LS 4 was also launched in 2006 but not showing that here it's front-wheel drive forget about it you don't want it in 2007 LS series getting a little bit crazy a little bit complicated but at this point GM starting to phase the aluminum block and a more and more engines including the truck side it's a hundred pounds lighter people this is the engine you want a hundred pounds lighter better acceleration better handling better braking you want the alumina Block LS unless you're going turbo then the iron block is sweet on the truck side we've got the whole lineup just being replaced and up until now the lq9 was the best truck engine but starting in 2007 the best truck engine is now the L 92 which debuts in the Escalade and the Denali it's a 6.2 liter also known as the L 94 and the l9h later on these are aluminum block engines variable valve timing available on high-end SUVs these are the engines that you want it's a really great choice high displacement high compression easily 400 horsepower stock also you're starting to see the six-speed transmission in more and more vehicles but it's really a beast it's really wide it's really tall and it's really difficult to swap into old muscle cars or anything that's relatively small 2008 we see the debut of the ls3 on the Corvette this is still really the LS engine that you want this is still really the best one in many ways 430 horsepower really just an amazing engine this is kind of like the high horsepower 350 small block Chevy from back in the day in modern times got the link in the description below if you want to throw caution to the wind and buy one the Corvette also sees the introduction of the TR 660 this is a 6-speed manual to replace the somewhat clunky t56 yes it can take more power but more importantly it's just smoother it's more refined this is really the great transmission if you're doing a six-speed swap in your car you really want to try to get the 660 if you can but again the Corvette one won't work because remember the Corvette is a transaxle it has a trans in the rear and it will not fit in your car by 2008 truck engines on the truck side the gentry engines are no longer in use and even though we're seeing the new rectangular port heads on some of the newer engines the 4.8 5.3 and the old 5.7 s is remember they all came with only the cathedral port heads so again you really want that 6.2 liter on the truck side the LFA is a hybrid engine LS we're not going to be talking about that and also sadly to note in 2008 GM dropped the manual transmission option from its trucks 2009 we see two debuts the supercharged LS nine on the zr1 and the LSA in the Cadillac cts-v we're talking 638 horsepower on the Corvette and 556 horsepower on the Cadillac cts-v titanium rods intake valves are titanium or the roots-type supercharger on it of course again I've got links below if you want to throw super caution to the wind and possibly get divorced I've got links below to both of those engines as well the six-speed transmission is now showing up on the trucks you can see that there on the comments 2010 the Camaro is back we see 426 horsepower on the manual trans version and a slightly detuned 400 horsepower on the automatic version which is the L 99 also finally don't confuse the l9h and the lh9 the l9h is a 6.2 liter that has a hundred more horsepower 2011 not a lot of changes we see the cts-v coupe and wagon added I love the wagon 2012 not a lot of changes the new LT one is coming in 2014 so hope things are winding down 2013 we see a new Corvette model the 427 convertible which is kind of like a zo6 convertible almost 2014 we see the debut of the generation 5 LT 1 all-new engine on the c7 Corvette I don't want to go into details on this because it's LS video but I'm starting to see some LT swaps and if you guys want me to do an LT video let me know in the comments below please hit a thumbs up for me as well all the LT gen five engines are aluminum blocking heads on the car side the Vette debuts with the 7-speed manual on the truck side you've got two engines only a 5.3 and a 6.2 the 4.8 liter is no longer available but we're still seeing some LS engines over the next few years and let's wind it down right now 2014 the Corvette has launched so of course the LS 7 and LS 9 are gone the z28 Camaro is introduced with the LS 7 from the Corvette and on the truck side this is last year for the LS and SUVs 2015 no change on the car sides the last year of the z28 on the truck side the last of the LS engines still carry on and heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans but SUV is like the Tahoe are now getting the gen 5l 83 2016 LS three L 99 LS seven LS a are all out of production no LS engines left on the car side on the truck side you've got a few LS engines left over mostly advanced this is the last year of the LS engine 2017 after 21 years of production if you liked this video don't forget to subscribe and please check out my other videos especially my video on the best LS engine for any budget let me know in the comments what you want to see in the next video hope you really enjoyed this and good luck with your project

Channel: Auto Guild

Views: 549,096

Keywords: muscle car, LS Engine, Camaro, LS1, LS3, LT1, Chevelle, LR4, LY2, L20, LM7, LY5, LS6, LS2, L92, L99, LS7, LSA, LS9, Engine swap, LS Swap, Corvette, Auto Guild

Id: ji78AVLeirM

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 16 2020