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ast week the phone rang. Robin Lawrence was on the other end. He’s from the Midwest and has close relationship with GM Performance Parts. Robin is also a racer. He used an LSX block to build a relatively small (454ci) motor to run in NMCA Nostalgia Pro Street—ostensibly a mid-7-second class. While all the development was done with natural aspiration, the engine is limited to a single stage of juice as per association rules. On the motor, Robin’s new-wave 454 made 930 horsepower! Why he did he choose MaxChevy to showcase this work? He said, “Because it’s a cool site.” Good enough for us, Robin. Hopefully, this exclusive story will make it even cooler.
It’s been ten years since the Gen-III LS engine came on line in the inaugural year of the C5 Corvette. The trickle-down since has been no less than stupendous—cars, trucks, and SUVs all have variations on this theme. With the ‘08 model year upon us we’re now onto the Gen-IV iterations, the first of which is the LS3 6.2L engine in the ’08 Corvette.
Undoubtedly, the cylinder cases for these new engines are stronger than the ones that went before. We’ve seen monstrous abuse heaped on a bone-stock bottom end LS1 crate motor that we violated repeatedly with camshafts, cylinder heads, nitrous oxide, forced air induction, and absolutely no mercy. Last count was somewhere in the 700-pull range. The motor finally kicked a cylinder wall. We think that’s pretty damn good. Most would agree that we should have used a cast iron truck block in the first place, but we wanted to prove that even the ‘undesirable’ low-ball aluminum block has got enough hair to last the casual user a lifetime.
