A guy in my town is selling an LS7 454 BBC. I heard these things were supposed to be really great performers. Does anybody know the specs on them, what type of heads, cam, CR they had.
Thanks a lot,
Chris

4 bolt block, 7/16 rods, steel crank, fordged 12 to 1 pistons, open chamber "990" rectangle heads, solid cam, can`t remember but i think it was the old L-88 cam. The only one I drove belonged to a older guy and he did`nt like the solid cam so he installed a very small GM marine cam. Was a turd. My old 327 was faster. Would make a good drag motor.

The motor has the ZL-1 cam shaft in it plus it is capable of running 11.00's easily with a 5500 stall converter and 4.56's. I used to see a car out at the strip like that.

You better be able ta feed the beast!! It's high CR. sucks on pump gas nowadays...

And with no more then a set of good four tube, long headers and you should be approaching 600 hp, imho!!!!

pdq67

I thought the LS-7 used aluminium heads? :confused:

Chevellefan is right, the crate version had cast iron heads. They run pretty good but need better gas than the pump stuff available now.

Also, if he charging "LS7" prices, be cautious. The slugs are heavy TRW's. Hypers are a bit heavier yet, while SRPs, in a +.060" 427 were something like 70 grams less. That's alot. Rods are top notch and avail for mid $400, 454 GM cranks can be had for around the same, etc. Or you could stroke it for just a bit more. ( Callies Crank, Manley Sportsmaster rods, and SRP slugs.)

I would be sure you have a good price there, keeping in mind that you can buy internals which are a bit better, and have the added benefit of choosing your final compression and camshaft operating range to fit your intended use precisely.

The LS7 crate makes a great bracket motor, and too much of a handful on the street IMHO. Not a penny more than $3000 and be advised it might not work on pump fuel, and won't do much until 4000+ rpm. Suspect you'll wnat to remvoe the pistons ( full floaters so not a big deal), mill around .100-.150 off the dome ( don't worry they're heavy solid domes!), balance the recip ass'y,check the valves and replace springs if need be for new cam, reassemble with new cam.

Then you'll have a more friendly, near as powerful ( esp with a nice solid roller), and quite durable 454. IM amatuer HO~!

I bought a used LS7 crate motor a couple of years ago. The ZL-1 cam was toast, #7 cyl lobe was rounded off, either due to improper break-in, or from all the silicone they used to seal the Chevelle oil pan with.( I think they all came with Corvette pans installed ?) I found gobs of it in the oil pump screen. Other than that, the engine was virtually new. I changed out the factory slugs to a set of TRW L2465F-30 pistons, which yield an actual compression ratio of 10.42 to 1. You can still get the ZL-1 cam from GMPP, I think but they're pricey as hell. I went with a Comp Cams XE-274H-10, but wish I had gone with something a little bigger.
By the way, if this is a real LS7, the engine prefix should be XCH. Mine, for instance is stamped TF12XCH7 on the small machined pad on the block, above the water pump.

The ZL1 cam, p/n 3959180, has been discontinued for years. I've seen a couple of "real" NOS ones on eBay go for somewhere in the $400.00 range over the past year.

About 15 years ago, my best friend bought a 71 Nova that had been built to run SS but never finished. 14x32 Goodyears, ladder bar w/a leaf floater spring, Dana 60 with 5.86 (!) gears. 3200lbs. with me in it. All 70's technology.

He bought a new crate LS-7 from Friendly Chev. in Dallas. We changed the head gaskets, notched the pan, put on my ported strip dominator and my 850DP Holley. 2" Super comps, a powerglide and an 8" converter with 4800 flash. And added a 250 horse system.

First nite out I stood it on the rear bumper and crashed the undercarriage. Second time out we calmed it down a little and ran 6.70's 1/8 mile on motor and 6.17-6.20 on spray. We ran it like that for 3 years and he sold it. Motor went into a street racer for two more years and then kicked a rod out.
Just a real fun wheels-up ride built relatively cheap. Not a good street combo, though. Motor was $3100.00 back then brand new.

Randy