1970 LS-7 Chevelle ??

[Rowdy Rat]

Jim,

To the best of my knowledge, the only car slated to get the LS-7 as an RPO during the 1970 model year was the Corvette although it ultimately failed to make production.

There were actually two engines tagged as "LS-7" which often leads to a little confusion...

The first was the production LS-7 intended for the 1970 Corvette. If the data that GM released to the AMA is to be believed, it would have been nothing more than the Chevelle LS-6 with the addition of closed chamber aluminum heads and a slightly different camshaft. Horsepower was stated as 460 in all the reliable GM sources that I have seen. The engineers worked through May 1970 to get the engine into production, but it was finally cancelled as the 1970 model year came to a close.

Apparently, Sports Car Graphic did a road test of a pre-production LS-7 Corvette... It would be neat to locate the issue it appeared in. I seem to recall a 13.8 e.t. with two people in the car.

The second LS-7 was the service engine that was available from the parts counter for many years. This engine was considerablly more radical and for the most part was a 454 cid version of the second design L-88 from 1969; the only exception being the cast iron open chamber heads on the LS-7 in place of the second design L-88's aluminum version.

Joe,

I remember the Car Craft article... I'm wondering if the production LS-7 started out as something more than what it eventually became or if Car Craft just "guesstimated" as to what the content would be. I can tell you that the GM specs show that the Corvette LS-7 would have had 11.25 compression, low rise aluminum intake (necessary to clear the standard big block hood), vacuum secondary Holley, and the previously mentioned oddball camshaft (.520/.550 lift, but had second design L-88/ZL-1 duration)... Quite a bit different than what Car Craft claimed.

Regards,

Stan Falenski