VIDEO: GM offers sneak peek at mystery crate engine headed for SEMA
Click above to watch the video after the jump
General Motors is getting ready for SEMA 2009, but the Detroit-based automaker has a little over a week before it can show us anything official in Las Vegas. That isn't stopping the General from teasing us, though, as this 40-second YouTube clip clearly demonstrates. One of GM's new tuner specials comes in a box and figures to be packed with power. It's a crate engine, but unfortunately the company isn't giving us much in the way of details.
Hit the jump to watch a pair of technicians bolt the mystery engine onto an unknown frame that already sports four Corvette-badged wheels. We're no trained eye, but the engine looks an awful lot like GM's 5.3-liter mill, which is made at the General's Canadian St. Catherines engine plant. To make us feel even more strongly about the mystery motor being some variant of the 5.3, there is even a Canada sticker at the belt wheel. And since the end of the video says "A new kind of crate engine is coming," at least one Autoblogger is further hypothesizing that the 5.3-liter could be a flex-fuel variant. But like we said, we're just thinking out loud here, so if you have a better guess, let us know in the post-jump comments section. We'll likely know for sure once SEMA begins on November 3.
[Source: YouTube]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Boomer78 10:40AM (10/30/2009)
St. CathArines....Arines....
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psarhjinian 11:00AM (10/30/2009)
|St. CathArines....Arines....
To be fair, most people, even those that live there, spell it incorrectly. Or correctly, depending on your POV.
1970Dodge 12:04PM (10/30/2009)
Yup, you're right.
-Guy from St. Catharines.
dukeisduke 10:48AM (10/30/2009)
"Belt wheel"? I think that's the water pump pulley. Sounds like somebody needs some more automotive knowledge.
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deluxemb 10:50AM (10/30/2009)
That is a 1955-1956 Chevrolet chassis.
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adrenalnjunky 11:58AM (10/30/2009)
55 - the body is sitting next to the roller.
Tom 10:57AM (10/30/2009)
ehhh that looks like a larger displacement than 5.3..... I could be wrong who knows. I'm anxious to see that upcoming Gen V direct injection V-8 but that still may be a couple years.
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why not the LS2LS7? 11:25AM (10/30/2009)
How could you tell? Everything up to 7.0L has the same external dimensions except for the addition of an external oil scavenger/pump (for the dry sump), which is pretty small.
rmanning414 11:08AM (10/30/2009)
could it be a new 5.0 or 5.7? ford is coming back with the 5.0...why not chevy? just a cuess...
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StickShift 11:45AM (10/30/2009)
I don't think anyone misses the 305, so I'd rule out a 5.0L crate engine.
I think the idea of a flex fuel crate motor is a good possibility. That's the only thing that would be 'a new kind of crate motor' to me.
jsmaikell 12:57PM (10/30/2009)
It could be a VVT or Multidisplacement engine. I have a feeling it will be a variate of one of the truck engines with a small ECM included.
Derek 1:53PM (10/31/2009)
The 302 was a 5.0 as well and plenty of people miss that motor.
HotRodzNKustoms 12:59PM (10/30/2009)
For all intents and purposes the LS7 is the new version of the Z/28 motor that you are referring to. The only difference is the addition of 2 liters of displacement.
Lar7789789 8:03PM (10/30/2009)
Actually alot of poeple miss the old 5.7 and 5.0 liter engines.
I am not impressed just because GM keeps putting bigger and bigger engines to win the horsepower war.
I still love the old 5.7 DOHC eninge in the first 1989-1995 ZR1, and the L98 305 TPI engines in the IROCs
dukeisduke 11:35AM (10/30/2009)
So, it looks like there will be some kind of Tri-Five Chevy with the new crate motor on the floor at SEMA. I am happy to see that even with all the crap GM has gone through in the past year, that they are still attending SEMA, and that Uncle Baracky is letting them do it.
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HotRodzNKustoms 11:35AM (10/30/2009)
I do not see how you can settle on it being a 5.3 by how it looks. All Chevy engines look pretty much exactly the same. That being said I hope it isn't a crate flex fuel motor identical to an already available motor except flex fuel capable. That would be a lot of hubub over nothing.
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IOwnCalculus 11:58AM (10/30/2009)
Exactly - externally speaking there's very little way to tell whether you're looking at a 4.8, a 5.3, a 5.7, a 6.0, a 6.2, or a 7.0L engine. All I can really say, based on the looks, is that looks an awful lot like a LS2 or LS3 intake manifold (the truck 5.3s have much taller intakes), but that could have been swapped. The exhaust manifolds aren't big enough to be the LS7 pieces, so we're probably not looking at a 7.0L, and obviously it's not supercharged.
Oh, wait, the power steering pump pulley on my LS1 has a Canada sticker too! Does this mean the new crate is a LS1?
(Hint: GM sources all of those pullies from Canada.)
adrenalnjunky 11:46AM (10/30/2009)
too bad it's not the small diesel V8 available as a crate motor. I've got a S13 chassis that needs something unique.
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BRUNO TULLIANI 12:18PM (10/30/2009)
I'M JUST GUESSING BUT IT COULD BE A HIGH REVVING SMALL BLOCK FOR THE UP COMING Z-28.
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Hiimandy1 11:00PM (11/02/2009)
I could be wrong, but hasn't it been confirmed that the Z28, if/when released, will be using the LSA?