Quote:
Originally Posted by mgarblik
They should just shoot the engineer that came up with the Optispark.
Just saying...
It's funny you would mention that! Optispark was designed and produced my Mitsubushi for Nissan 10 years before ever appearing on a GM Product. TEN YEARS and no issues to speak of on the Nissan engines. Then CHEVROLET ENGINEERS adapted it to the LT1. Put it behind the water pump, mounted it low in the water and road debris, and there you have it a POS ignition system. If not for the POWERTRAIN DIVISION, Chevrolet may have gone under too. Think about the engines we love. In the 1980's PONTIAC engineers were given "PROVEN" Chevrolet designs of the SBC and BBC variety, they immediately improved them both drastically. Yes, I would say compared to Pontiac Engineers, the Chevy guys were underachievers. That's why I love the PONTIAC engine.
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Perfect examples Mike, exactly what some people don't comprehend. The LS engine in stock form is head and shoulders above a SBC. As some have described it, a world class engine. The factory offerings for the 2 engines again show superiority in favor of the LS.
One of the things that makes the SBC as popular as it is also make it cheaper to build such as cast combustion chambers, took them forever to come up with screw in rocker studs and pushrod guide plates on factory offerings. The adage you get what you pay for rings true here. These people that engineered SBC Gen 1 and re-engineered it for Gen 2 are hardly world class engineers and whoever oversaw these efforts were not of the same thought processes of the minds that conceived and got the LS series from paper to practicality.
From reading I've done I hardly believe the LS engines were made for corvettes, more so they were the lower production guinea pigs to try the newly designed engine for one model year before it was used in full scale production. Also there weren't enough plants making the new GM designed Gen 3 engine to be able to supply the demand for all divisions at once. Until tooling and other plants ramped up for full scale manufacturing to supply all the divisions, even so the truck lines still used the SBC Gen 2 for a few more years until production was sufficient to supply them also.
The conception that the LS engine is a chevy engine instead of a GM powertrain engine, alienates many people in the Pontiac hobby from enjoying the 98 and up performance Pontiacs. The 98 up Formula/TA, GTO, and G8 are all excellent examples of performance Pontiacs and more on the scale of powerplants Pontiac owners have come to expect under their hood. I owned a 97 T/A with the Gen 2 LT1 engine and it was really not the engine with a power level I expect to be in a performance Pontiac. My 05 GTO of course has the Gen 3 LS2 400 hp/ 400 lb.ft. torque engine and it is so much better all around than the LT1 in the 97 T/A I previously owned. Anyone that excludes these cars because they thought Pontiac died in 1981 is shortchanging themselves, I can't conceive driving a honda, toyota, or whatever you use as a daily driver over one of these cars because you believe they're not real Pontiacs. Except in the winter my 05 GTO is my daily driver.
They don't have a Stratostreak engine under the hood, however it is a true GM corporate engine designed with good carryover ideas from all of the previous division engines rolled into one. Thats what it is. What it isn't, is a SBC.