SINCE it was launched in 1997, there have been 30 variants made of the Gen III and Gen IV Chevrolet V8, colloquially known as the LS. When it first appeared under the heavily raked bonnet of the all-new fifth-gen Corvette in ’97, the all-aluminium 5.7-litre V8 was dubbed the Gen III, as it was the third main redesign of the super-popular Chevy small-block.
Sharing almost nothing with its iron-based predecessors, the injected, lightweight and very compact pushrod engine ushered in a new era of refinement for General Motors V8 cars. Its popularity and use across almost the entire GM network over the past 26 years means there is now a mind-boggling number of variants and revisions.
From the original 345hp (260kW) LS1 found in the C5 Corvette, through to the 638hp (476kW) LS9 (the most powerful engine ever offered by GM in a production car), the breadth of the family is staggeringly vast. There are engines for front-, all- and rear-wheel drive; iron and aluminium blocks; cathedral and rectangular ports; many different bore/stroke sizes; dry and wet sump set-ups in a range of front-, mid- and rear-hump layouts; displacement on demand; variable valve timing technology; and more.
As with most popular engine layouts in the US, there are countless blocks and cylinder heads available from aftermarket companies. Cataloguing all of those would easily fill a book, so we’ll stick to giving you a rundown of the most popular production
