When Chevrolet dropped the 427ci LS7 on the performance world in 2006, it was the most powerful naturally aspirated V8 powerplant ever put into mass production. A lot has happened in the interim, including GM’s later 650hp LT4 and 755hp LT5 production engines. At other brands, there’s the Hellcat family of V8s at Dodge, and Ford’s excellent Trinity and Predator V8s, but all of these are supercharged and intercooled. In fact, only super-high-tech, super-expensive flat-plane-crank engines (Ford’s 5.2-liter four-valve Voodoo and Chevy’s 5.5-liter direct-injected LT6) have been able to best the LS7’s power output in the past 16 years.
As the first of the rectangle-port cylinder heads that subsequently came through the years (i.e., LS3, L92), the LS7 cylinder head still reigns supreme as the best flowing two-valve production small-block head ever placed in front of hot-rodders. The
