FYI - OHC had been used in automotive applications for decades before the first pushrod motor was put in a production car. Each valvetrain has its own benefits and disadvantages, and the engineers of most modern engines know this before they pick one to place in a new engine. To say that an engine is better or worse than another based purely on the method used to actuate the valves is simply asinine.

Google: If you could post my pm and any comments you have here, I would appreciate it. When I replied to you I didn't realize that your pm was actually a post in this thread, and for some reason it's not showing up in my sent folder. Thanks for the help...

 

whatever - read what i said... and if you're saying a cam sitting here, with a rod going up here to a rocker arm here to open the valve there is more efficient then go study some more. i didn't say one was better than the other, i said the ls1 isn't particularly bristling with technology.

 

I like the retro look.

 

This is PoorCollegeKid's PM response per his request:

Even if you didn't get the mileage claimed, there are many other people who have. Even some Camaro owners, with the same LS1 as the base C5 in a heavier car, have reported getting ~30mpg on long highway trips. If you never got over 22mpg (which is only 3mpg more than the predicted city gas mileage) maybe there was something wrong with your ECU or your engine had a mechanical problem. Maybe you just got a bad engine. But for every person like you who says that they got terrible gas mileage even on the highway, there are 2 or 3 more who say that they've met or exceeded the EPA mileage figures, so I continue to stand by my claim that the LS1 is fully capable of at least matching the EPA highway figures in real life.

As far as conspiracy theories go, my parents own a Grand Prix that regularly gets 30+mpg on the highway and an Intrigue that does the same, which is a few mpg higher than expected. The EPA "assistance" may only help American sports cars or muscle cars, but GM family cars seem to have been tested accurately. A proper analysis cannot be made from such a limited sample (my parents, yourself, and your g/f), however, but many others with cars powered by the L36/L67 have reported 30+mpg and there have been very few (I can't remember a single on, in fact) complaints of less than published gas mileage figures on these cars (W-bodies, mainly). An example of a car that's over rated as far as gas mileage goes is the Toyota Prius. Most drivers actually achieve gas mileage results in the mid 40s range, which is very, very good, but still 10mpg (~20%) lower than the actual rating. When the EPA test figures were published, Toyota reportedly even asked the board to reconsider these numbers because they knew they were not accurate. It seems that there are cars that slip through the cracks and get a rating that is out of sync with their actual performance, but this happens to all automakers, not just American ones.

The new Z06 is supposedly going to put out 500+hp with a 3v 6.0L or 6.4L V8, so it seems that GM is finally making engines with higher power/liter ratios, though still lagging behind the Japanese and Europeans in that factor. Since those engines utilize such large displacements, they still outpower everything in that price range and even above, so it still makes good business sense to keep producing large engines with lower power/liter ratios. It's nice to see that they're finally moving toward higher revving, higher specific output engines, though, and we can only wait to see what the future will bring.

I, too, wish that the Japanese would move toward larger engines. That would force the American and European companies to place more advanced technology in to their engines to keep up with the new competition from Japan. Nissan and Toyota are the only two companies that utilize larger displacement V8s in their production vehicles, and neither one seems to want to put out a higher strung, high power version of any of these engines. As far as Honda goes, I can't wait to see the specs on the new NSX. That car is going to be an amazing piece of machinery, and I hope that they finally address its rather underpowered nature to make it competitive against Porsches and other cars in that price range. However, if any of these companies puts a high strung, big V8 in a sports car it can be almost 100% guaranteed that it will cost more than the Corvette. Until they can bring the prices of their supercars down some American automakers will continue to have something of an advantage.

 

I would rather have the '67 version of the 389ci TRI-power..
Gass guzzler, my brother used to have one.. welded the spider gears together, used to hop wheelies over coke cans.