[VIDEO] Jordan Lee Tells Story of Vibrations Causing Havoc on Early LT6 Development Engines

By
Keith Cornett
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6
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[VIDEO] Jordan Lee Tells Story of Vibrations Causing Havoc on Early LT6 Development Engines

Photo Credit: Keith Cornett


It’s pretty rare that a large automaker like General Motors would ever talk about the failures they encountered when developing new vehicles or the engines that power them. Other manufacturers may give you the positive highlights (as approved by marketing), but the Corvette Z06 isn’t just another car the same way the LT6 isn’t just another engine, and its future owners want to know everything about it.

Lucky for us that GM sent Small Block Chief Engineer Jordan Lee down to the NCM Bash to tell us all about the Gemini Project, and included in his talk was this story about the vibrations in the early prototype motors.

[VIDEO] Jordan Lee Tells Story of Vibrations Causing Havoc on Early LT6 Development Engines


During his powertrain seminar, Jordan shared the details about the Gemini LT6 engine which included their priorities to return to a naturally aspirated power while also offering exhilarating performance. Utilizing a flat-plane crank allowed the engineers to maximize volumetric efficiency for greater power and of course the ability to redline at 8600 rpm.

Unfortunately, the downside to the flat-plane crank is that “it shakes like a paint shaker” the chief engineer said. “Horizontal shaking forces are horrendous and so difficult to deal with. As an example, Ford did a flat-plane 5.2-Liter V8 for a number of years, and they had a story on the web where the oil filter was actually spun off the engine from the shaking forces. And we thought, wow, that’s pretty hilarious, we would never make that mistake…until we made that mistake.”

Jordan tells the crowd that at this early point in the program, they were working with their first development engines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each. He recalls the number 2 engine was on the dyno when all of a sudden the engine lost oil pressure and failed. Looking into the test cell, they see the engine’s oil filter was on the ground. Thinking that someone forgot to tighten it, they added some safety wire and set up a camera to watch the filter on another engine. Sure enough, as the engine got up to speed, the filter started to spin off the motor.

[VIDEO] Jordan Lee Tells Story of Vibrations Causing Havoc on Early LT6 Development Engines


“It was then we realized it wasn’t going to be easy. And so for five years of working on all the vibrations and all the different issues,” Jordan says before talking about even the smallest things like threaded fuel injector connectors that were being shaken apart and causing engine codes and other coil issues as a result. “It was a bear dealing with vibrations.”

“The good news for you that buy a Z06 is that you do not know it when driving your car. The attenuation of the vibrations at the engine mounts is stellar,” says Jordan.

Thanks again for Jordan Lee sharing this fun story with the enthusiasts at the National Corvette Museum and we think it’s a great way to put into perspective the amount of time engineers needed to make sure everything is a go with this new Corvette. Our video below captured Jordan’s telling of the story at the NCM Bash and we also have a follow-up answer from the Q&A session about how the engineers solved the problematic issue of the oil filter unscrewing itself from the car.


Source:
Video by Keith Cornett

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6 COMMENTS

  2. “The good news is the engine mounts will absorb all the vibrations, you will never feel your engine shaking itself apart.”

  3. The 8 speed transmission must be working for most. Otherwise a significant number of C8 cars wouldn’t be on the road. I see them most everywhere I go.

  4. Daniel, Corvette racing has about 2 seasons of great results with the LT6 engine. The best R&D testing IMO, I wouldnt be afraid of the engine. And Bob in Florida, the 8 speed auto trans Daniel is referring to is not the 8 speed DCT from Tremec that the C8 uses. The DCT is a wet clutch dual clutch manual trans, clutch action and shift action done hydraulically and electrically

  5. I’m curious as to whether the engineers significantly reduced the vibrations or came up with a plethora of band-aids to reduce their effects.

  6. Don Bjorkland…how did they remedy the vibrations? Must be more than isolating them from the drive by advanced motor mounts. Clearly it was quite the rattletrap based on the filter example. Ford did give up on theirs. Can this engine withstand turbo charging?

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