[VIDEO] ‘Water Test’ Shows Little Vibration from the Corvette Z06’s LT6 Engine

By
Keith Cornett
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[VIDEO] 'Water Test' Shows Little Vibration from the Corvette Z06's LT6 Engine

Photo Credit: Keith Cornett


When the rumors of the C8 Corvette Z06 using a Flat-Plane Crank V8 engine were officially confirmed, the naysayers came out in force with all sorts of predictions about the 5.5L engine not being able to handle the vibrations inherent in the FPC design.

Chevy’s powertrain engineers led by Jordan Lee and Dustin Gardner were undaunted despite the problems they saw that Ford was having with their own 5.2L Voodoo V8’s flat-plane crank design. Early on in the program, they bought a used FPC engine from a Ferrari 458 and did a complete tear-down to learn the secrets of one of the most powerful naturally aspirated engines made.

The first real-world test came with an engine variant dubbed the LT6R that would power the Corvette C8.R race cars. These engines provided thousands of hours of real-time feedback for the engineers and while also putting to bed the fears that vibrations from the flat-plane crank would tear the engine apart. Engineers spent countless hours working to incorporate lightweight components for their moving parts to better manage or reduce vibrations.

Having said all that, we know that GM has said that the LT6 vibrations are part of the experience of driving America’s newest sportscar, but the question was how much of these vibrations remained now that the street versions are in customer’s hands? Well, not too much, according to this quick test performed by a member of the MidEngineCorvetteForum.com.

John006 took delivery of his 2023 Corvette Z06 Convertible last week and did a simple test with a glass of water to show us what kinds of vibrations we can see with some engine revs. Raising his HTC top into the service position, John006 placed a glass of water on his engine cover and then gave it some revs. He didn’t get close to the 8600 RPM redline with these revs, but as you can see, the vibrations were minimal.


Source:
MidEngineCorvetteForum.com

Related:
Chevrolet Announces Edge Red LT6 Engine Manifold Availability for the 2023 Corvette Z06 Coupe
[VIDEO] Jordan Lee Tells Story of Vibrations Causing Havoc on Early LT6 Development Engines
The 2023 Corvette Z06 670-hp LT6 Engine Shares No Parts with Other GM Small Blocks

 



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4 COMMENTS

  1. Greetings Keith,
    Thank you for being my go-to source for Z06 updates and information. Just with this article, they’re always interesting and very often entertaining.
    Hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving! JB

  3. Very nice . About 30 years ago i was checking the timing on my 67 327 350 hp coupe and my 80 year old neighbor Kelly came over. As he always did any time i was working on a car. He is watching me and says go inside and get a glass of water. I bring one out he sets in on the car a few ripples and says advance a little and it smoothed out. Been doing that pretty much ever since.

  4. The predominate vibration of a flat plane V-8 is horizontal, side to side at twice the rotational frequency. It is also resolved at the crankshaft. A glass of water on top of the engine has very limited indication of the vibration being generated. Accelerometers bolted to the block near the height of the crank would be needed to evaluate this inevitable imbalance. The gm engineers went to great lengths to minimize the piston and connecting rod reciprocating weights that are the source of the vibration. It can be reduced but not eliminated without counter weight shafts spinning at twice engine speed that would add considerable cost, weight, and parasitic losses to the design.

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