What makes an LS better than a small block?

[motorheadmike]

If my car isn't going to be seeing upwards of 5000rpm too often as a daily driver, maybe a low-rpm torque machine is what I would enjoy the most. At least I could smoke an LS off the line 😀 haha

Getting 15mpg with the 305 sucks. If I could get 20-25mpg with a 350 or other Gen I, then I am completely fine with that. No need for an expensive LS swap for my purposes, although it would be a cool deal. Maybe on a future weekend project car. Like jiho said, Ill see about focusing on the weight department for mileage.

I hate to tell you how wrong you are. My wife's stock longblock 2002 Z28 would pull down 25+mpg with a set of 3.08 gears, when we put in 4.10s it still got 25+mpg (with the highway cruising speed lowered slightly) - it also developed uncanny acceleration around town. The broad torque curve gave the car predictable passing power in all gears, at all speeds. I couldn't even come close to replicating this with the Vortec 355 in my MCSS with 4.56s (especially the gas mileage). Both cars ran mid-12s at 110+mph. Stoplight to stoplight the MCSS would have been slower.

I tuned the stock LS2 in our TBSS to pull down 20+mpg; and with a mild lean cruise tune 22+mpg.

The fact of the matter is you will not see this kind of repeatable return with a carb'd Gen I SBC. I will qualify this by saying I achieved 22mpg average in a 1991 Z28 with a worked TPI 305 (heads, cam, headers), T5 and 3.08 gears - driving like a granny. But, that was a 12 minute car.

 

[Texas82GP]

I hate to tell you how wrong you are. My wife's stock longblock 2002 Z28 would pull down 25+mpg with a set of 3.08 gears, when we put in 4.10s it still got 25+mpg (with the highway cruising speed lowered slighly) - it also developed uncanny acceleration around town. The broad torque curve gave the car predictable passing power in all gears, at all speeds. I couldn't even come close to replicating this with the Vortec 355 in my MCSS with 4.56s (especially the gas mileage). Both cars ran mid-12s at 110+mph. Stoplight to stoplight the MCSS would have been slower.

I tuned the stock LS2 in our TBSS to pull down 20+mpg; and with a mild lean cruise tune 22+mpg.

The fact of the matter is you will not see this kind of repeatable return with a carb'd Gen I SBC. I will qualify this by saying I achieved 22mpg average in a 1991 Z28 with a worked TPI 305 (heads, cam, headers), T5 and 3.08 gears - driving like a granny. But, that was a 12 minute car.

4.10's in an 02 Z28 sounds like fun.

 

[motorheadmike]

4.10's in an 02 Z28 sounds like fun.

Bye bye Subaru:

😉

 

[peppers]

ill say it like this. the ls (camaro, gto, trans am, corvette) is a superior motor. it is because of the old mouse motors the ls is what it is. my biggest dilemma is the car i have now came no motor/trans. i can literally spend $4000 and get a complete ls-2 engine with 6speed trans and all parts/electrical shipped to my door. its a company that specializes in removing drivetrains from wrecks. thats pretty close to drop in 400hp decent gas milage and whatnot. on the flip side if your building your own motor there are millions of 350 blocks out there.
there is the pride factor. building your own motor from the tons of parts available gives you an open book on what you want your engine to do. and while tuning a carb is a bit of an art, consider the counterpart of hooking a laptop up to the car and looking at numbers for hours on end to make changes to the ls platform. or just take it to a dyno shop and pour out money. there is no wrong answer. I've seen backyard budget 350s take upgraded gtos and trans ams out at the track.

 

[ttype]

getting better MPG out of a tune-up is somewhat easier than than the time and effort it takes to drive like granny(just observe other people around you when the light turns green, then... take note of how much they need to decelerate for the next red light).

my "commuter car" is harder on fuel with the cruise control operating than when "i'm" driving it. the computer doesn't see the grades i am approaching for instance, but sees the decline in speed, then accelerates the car to "maintain" the speed it was told to. then, it cuts engine power after it reaches the top of a hill. if a guy with a laser gun is on the other side of that hill, i could easily receive a citation from my cruise control's efforts(what? it is only doing what it is "programmed" to do). it's kinda like moving something using a rubber band, then moving that same object with a string. once that object moves, it has more inertia from overcoming the stretched rubber band, than say... moving it with something solid. i can see the hill i'm approaching, and know full well there's a downgrade behind it. the computer doesn't.

 

[ttype]

getting better MPG out of a tune-up is somewhat easier than than the time and effort it takes to drive like granny(just observe other people around you when the light turns green, then... take note of how much they need to decelerate for the next red light).

my "commuter car" is harder on fuel with the cruise control operating than when "i'm" driving it. the computer doesn't see the grades i am approaching for instance, but sees the decline in speed, then accelerates the car to "maintain" the speed it was told to. then, it cuts engine power after it reaches the top of a hill. if a guy with a laser gun is on the other side of that hill, i could easily receive a citation(or at the very least, a "roadside" interview) for my cruise control's efforts(what? it is only doing what it is "programmed" to do). it's kinda like moving something using a rubber band, then moving that same object with a string. once that object moves, it has more inertia from overcoming the stretched rubber band, than say... moving it with something solid. i can see the hill i'm approaching, and know full well there's a downgrade behind it. the computer doesn't.

 

[motorheadmike]

I've seen backyard budget 350s take upgraded gtos and trans ams out at the track.

There are so many horribly built/tuned LS-engines out there it is mind-boggling. There is a "right way" and a "wrong way" to build every engine.

 

[jiho]

There's no disputing that for a daily driver, there are limits to what you can do with the older technologies. You have to go somewhere with the tradeoffs, though. A good part of my attitude (magical thinking? 😀) derives from the fact that I've got both California smogcheck and those tradeoffs staring me in the face at the same time. I have to sort through GM's decades of development (to put a positive spin on it), and evaluate which of their factory configurations makes the most sense. There aren't a whole lot of them, and none of them really makes total sense. What's even legal here starts with a feedback QJet and ends with an LT1 (ignoring an E-Rod, the only legal LS).

To be honest, having said all that, and given the OP's original question, maybe I let myself get pulled into a thread where I can't possibly have anything really useful to say. 🙁

(Everyone rushes forward with soothing words and sympathetic murmuring. 😀)

 

[motorheadmike]

To be honest, having said all that, and given the OP's original question, maybe I let myself get pulled into a thread where I can't possibly have anything really useful to say. 🙁

Meh. It is Winter, and many of us are snowed in and bored - no harm.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Why would you use a newer v6 instead of a newer v8? Doesn't make sense

The author of the aticle assumes the V6 will be much more plentiful than V8s when the new Camaros start to get junked in numbers. The article was mainly a smear piece to make LS1 and 5.3 owners feel inadequate that mere V6s can beat their older V8s now. Very much how many LS swap articles have to smear SBCs. It is all marketing to push people to go out and buy all new.

LukeZ, something must be off about your 305, as mine gets over 20 mpgs with an aftermarket cam.