Chevy Hybrid Smallblock Build

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 bus ride V8.

The 1997 C five 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 LS one

rated at 345 horsepower.

This groundbreaking gen three 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 Ls seven

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 swab in parts between the Ls and the previous generation small blocks

until now that is you old school guys are gonna love this. We're gonna 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 as 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 pin 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 a crow

4340 forge crank shaft,

a set of their maxi light connecting rods

and we'll make them up with these Je inverted

dome pistons. Now, the cam shaft, 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

the

bottom end components are gonna 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 EF I set up put together by Hal.

You can get the block bear or already machine like ours so we can get right down to the business of building the engine.

Now, I can drop in the crank shaft that has a stroke at 3.562 inches. Check out the machining work that Crow 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 in play and we're good here with five thousands clearance.

And before we install all of 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 thousands, we're good here too.

The block is displayed four volt 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 ft 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 or 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 crow

or small block. Chevy rides.

Our ring sets came from total seal and they need to be filed to fit.

Now, since this motor is gonna 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 in the flat domes and they'll give us a compression ratio of 10 to 1.

Our custom built cam shaft 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 cam shaft and sticking it in, there's two different ways you can do it

on a hydraulic roller cam shaft. A Molly 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 loaves through the lifter boards

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 boards.

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 gonna rotate the motor back up right and get started on the top end. So make sure you guys don't go anywhere.

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 on the standard rods

and installed a custom cam with LS lobes and small block friendly add ons.

Now, in case you're wondering why I build a motor like this, we'll consider that the small block bottle man 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'll drop on the stock motor mounts of a lot of classical muscle cars.

And hey, what a conversation piece at the car show?

Too bad. They can't see how these comp LS roller lifters installed directly into the block instead of the heads like at an oels.

They also won't see the special valley cover. We both with the block which is actually a spacer that

the top of the block and acres at the top of the heads.

It also has a mounting location for the small block distributor.

We loaded up our War Hawk heads with a set of manly stainless steel valves measuring up at 2080 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 60 fours to maintain that 10 to 1 compression ratio.

These heads have the same LS 15 degree center line at 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 gonna 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 3500 to 7000

and it accepts a standard four barrel square board carburetor.

Well, we're gonna 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 how 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 A T I 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 gonna 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 A N fittings. Now, the A N line will go from that up to this moroso remote thermostat housing which accepts a standard small block water net

to fire off this hybrid LS. We're installing an MS D PRO billet distributor

and to feed it a Holly HP flowing 750 CFM

and 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 ft pounds of torque at 51

while we're still climbing on horsepower

before a pool at 6500 though. Let's see. What two degrees of timing does

yo,

what do you think

it

picked

up?

I don't think it picked up, but we'll see.

Wow.

Wow. 504 ft pounds.

That's a nice little motor

and 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.

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 gotta have something

and there are 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 horse power compared to stock.

In fact, this is an O, 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 hose 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 gonna 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 100 7 decibels with an average peak horsepower. 472

cherry bomb has been disturbing the piece since 1968. Thanks to its first muffler of the glass pack. Now, flow is directed through these lers 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 gonna test a pair of these next.

I love that old sound. All 129 decibels were

at 480 horsepower. That's a gain of eight over stock cherry bombs. Economy turbo

muffler is similar to the o

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 gonna get Cherry Bond's extreme. Muffler only uses this offset wing to deflect sound. So it's their loudest muffler. Now, it's idea 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 100 and 18 D BS, four ponies and some change over the stock horsepower.

Well, finally Cherry Bombs Vortex. Now it uses all the principles of the other mufflers

and these flow dividers here that push the exhaust through these perforated hose 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.

No big surprise. The vortex allowed the most power 480.4 horsepower

while several decibels quieter than the glass pack.

So while the cherry bums 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? Wanna politely blow past the other cars

or disturb the piece at the same time?

Your call? I guess we'll be right back.

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Well, it's time for hot parts and here's a hot new version of the good old carburetor that got our attention. It's called the SV one from pro systems. And it uses this large single venturia 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 got them for Gasoline Al

Hall and E 85 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 5 to 7 tents in their eight mile ETS.

That's what recent tests have proven with this six L 80 E from performance torque converters

as 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 deal

icons from performance distributors

and features a melanize gear that works with hydraulic roller cam shafts plus

an optimized timing curve to give you more power throughout the complete RPM range. Now, with this 50,000 volt coil and dyno module, you get a longer duration spark so you can gap your plugs at 55,000 for a complete burn.

Does this spark your interest? You can get one for about 300 bucks.

If the cam shaft is the brain of an engine, then it's the drive system that puts that brain power into action.

Jess'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.