We do plenty of shop tours and how-it’s-made features here at GM EFI Magazine, but rarely to our readers get a peek inside the GM Performance Build Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Recently, Engineering Explained had recently performed a shop tour through the facility and shot plenty of video highlighting the process of engine assembly from start to finish.
Now, most of us know how to assemble an engine or at least, understand the concept. However, when was the last time you’ve witnessed an LT4 or an LS7 come to fruition live, right on the GM assembly-line? If you don’t work at the Bowling Green, Kentucky plant, then those odds are probably nil. GM does offer the occasional plant tour, but those are typically on a case-by-case basis.
Now for those of you who have been living in a bubble these last few years, the LS7 is the 2014-2015 Camaro Z/28’s 505 hp powerplant spec’ing in at 427 cubic-inches, or 7.0-liters for those of us comfortable in the 21st century. It’s largely carried over from the 2006-2013 Corvette Z06, and makes for the perfect balance of big-cube naturally-aspirated horsepower and high-revs that you need from a road racing machine. The LT4 on the other hand, is the 2015 Z06’s powerplant; a 6.2L powerhouse with 650 hp and a 1.7L blower – it has power and torque all over the place.
In this near 10-minute video, you get to watch GM’s two biggest powerplants come together covering the gamut of the build process from the bottom-end, to the intake manifold, and everything in between. We get a better understanding of how the manufacturing process is in an automotive manufacturing plant and as a bonus.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of GMEFI Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the brand’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next modifications for his own cars.
