How about it?

It would be great if one of the aftermarket companies would design LS1 type cylinder heads, intake manifolds (composite type), and we would need new headers for our L98s!!!!

How do we get someone to take this project on?

What do you guys think?

Food for thought.

I think this would be awesome!!!!!!!!!

 

All we need is a multi million dollar casting facility, a CNC machine shop, and someone that knows how to run it all. It's almost to easy...

There are aftermarket heads available already that outflow the LS1 designs. Why do it?

 

yea get some SB2.2's and a manifold to match then put some injector bungs in it and a throttle body.

 

Why, there are already many 18* and 15* heads out there. Also the LS1 architecture is completely different so you couldn't get the things that make an LS1 head so good on a SBC.

 

ME, why not?

The bore spacing is nearly the same. Its the heads that have the intake ports and exhaust ports matched up (side by side) on our SBCs. While the ports on the LS1 heads are regularly spaced and organized, similar to Fords SB. If the intake and heads are designed as matching sets, I do not see why the LS1 architecture can not work on an L98 block.

EDIT: If one of the aftermarket companies took this on, and was the first to market it, they would make a bunch of profits. IMO.

 

Its not worth it, a new intake, cam, lifters, pushrods, and exhaust ... would be needed. There is no way a company is going to spend millions in investment capital to do it.

Its a good idea but there is no point, there are many good heads out there that are just as good or better then LS1 heads, and don't require all the work and money.

 

The cam and valve train would not need to be different. As I said in first post, the exhaust would need to be redesigned as the intake manifold and heads.

Our L98 stle heads has paired intake ports and paired exhaust ports. The LS1 has equally spaced intake and exhaust ports. The cam has nothing to do with this. I'm proposing to keep the same firing order as have have on L98s.

The LS1 tall intake ports provide great flow velocity and large amounts of air. The composite intake manifold along with the heads provide a very flat and wide torque curve which we can not get on our L98 TPIs. Also, the LS1 stle heads make great top end power (with great bottom end torque) and does not run out of air as soon as our TPIs.

I guess we could install an LT1 intake or a HSR, but the LS1 design has the great bottom end torque of TPIs and better top end power than LT1s.

 

Since the valves, lifters, ports, and pushrods are in different locations, you do.

Also its not just the heads and intake that make the LS1 such a great superior engine. There are also many internal modifications that build great power.

 

Doc:
Sorry, but the cam would have to change. The engines have different lobes for intake and exhaust, and the pattern of L-98 and LS-1s are different. The stagger of intake, exhaust, exhaust intake etc on the L-98 would go to intake, exhaust, intake, exhaust on an LS-1 style head. The LS-1s' also work better with totally different profiles than the L-98 family. The real problem with the L-98 is more availibility of FI intakes than heads. There are plenty of good heads available that will easily out perform LS-1 heads.

The theory is good, but in the real world, you would be way ahead just buying an LS-1 out of the junkyard and putting it in the 3rd gen. You then also get the benefit of the aluminum blocks' weight savings.

Troy
So Cal

 

Yep, you guys are right. Some of the intake valves would have to be switch with the position of the exhaust valves, and visee versa, as well as the cam lobes.

OK, lets drop this one in the toilet.

 

Actually, at least for a while, there was a company that made int/ex/int/exh style heads for SBC. I haven't seen or head about them in quite a long while. Remember the 32 valve heads for gen 1 SBC? Where are those guys now? Pretty well gone if not totally kaput...

 

I remember those 32 valve heads! They were featured the same month (back in 1990 or so) as the V-12 SBC. Some crazy ya-hoos with time and money to burn would build you a V-12 SBC up to 600 cid with fuel injection or 12 downdraft carbs.

Just think with todays blocks you could get 708 cid out of one! lol!

 

They became these guys --> http://www.araoengineering.com/

And, if you run the flow numbers through DeskTop Dyno, you get phenomenal TQ & HP with some very mild cams.

The biggest problem with these heads (besides cost) is the special headers you need. They only make the exhaust ports to fit either the Stahl or Hooker Header 7 bolt pattern. So add custom headers to the bill. Besides, what a waste to run shorty headers on a head like this. But doing plug changes are a snap.