Motown LS

The Unfamiliar Hybrid.

- Sam Logan

What’s the motivation for adapting LS cylinder heads to a small-block Chevrolet engine? You might say that you could just go out and buy a used LS motor. It’s a modern power unit, bestowed with high flowing heads, is readily available, and affordable. All the benefits you could desire. Except there’s a catch—the fact is you have to do a lot of work to get it installed properly, and also be burdened by appreciable expenditures.

If you are empowering any pre-1990s muscle car with an LS-series engine it is usually not a simple swap. And it’s not just exploring engine and transmission mounting solutions and clutch actuation. There are EFI and ignition considerations, a fuel system design, plus numerous cooling and engine accessories questions to resolve. The fact is that mounting a pair of LS-series cylinder heads on a small block Chevrolet is a much more practical solution.

Weighing 210 pounds and employing standard LS deck height, the Motown LS is a cast iron small-block that accepts LS-series cylinder heads. Developed under the insightful command of Dick Boyer, the architect of the previous year’s 454 Man O’ War Ford block, it is unique and thus one of the most interesting new engine of 2016.