Chevy Officially Retires the LS7 V8 Crate Engine

Plenty of choices for crate engines are out there for hard-core enthusiasts, but one of them has recently been discontinued by General Motors.

The legendary LS7 engine that powered the C6 Corvette Z06 and the fifth-generation Camaro Z/28 is now a “Discontinued Product,” according to a GM website.

It’s apparently not too late to buy one of the engines if you happen to get lucky and locate a dealer that still has some in stock, but for the most part, it’s going to be tougher and tougher with each passing day to find new examples of the LS7 – a 7.0-liter, 427-cubic-inch, small-block V8 that was the same displacement as the legendary “big-block” 1966-69 Corvettes.

The LS7 produced 505 horsepower in the Z06, and each engine was hand-assembled at GM’s Performance Build Center in Wixom, Michigan. The powerplant featured 4.125-inch cylinder bores in an aluminum block with pressed-in steel cylinder lines, titanium connecting rods, and intake valves and utilized an 8-quart dry-sump oiling system with remote reservoir, 11:1 compression, 7,000 RPM redline, and a 0-to-60 time of 3.7 seconds.

As a popular crate engine for restomods, the LS7 offered Connect & Cruise Powertrain Systems with factory-matched engine and transmission combinations with specifically calibrated controllers and wire harnesses to make installation easier in older vehicles.

While Chevy hasn’t made an official announcement about the demise of the LS7, the official website notes that rebates and offers expired on Oct. 31, 2021 and had to have been postmarked before Dec. 1, 2021 – indicating that production and sales ended late last year.

While it’s sad to think the LS7 is no more, it’s encouraging to know that GM will continue to offer other legendary crate engines like their latest release – a 632-ci, 1004-hp V8 called the ZZ632/1000.

Source:
CarBuzz.com

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