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The GM small-block series was a "clean sheet" design with only the rod bearings in common in terms of shared parts with the classic Chevrolet small block V8. The basic layout owes a good deal to the essential concept of Ed Cole's original small-block design of 1954-55, though the small-block engine also uses design cues from Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac engines.
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As has been said already it is a combination of all the good points from all previous GM divisions V8 engines. Clean sheet of paper design that was designed engineered and manufactured by GM Powertrain.
Chevy never had a small block with the potential to make the power per cubic inch that the LSX engine series does. From 55-97 the SBC never was even close to the stock power output of the LSX engines. SBC always had the exhaust ports on the end ports and the middle ports, they never had a symmetrical IE layout. The RAV is the only GM engine that comes to mind with the same valve arrangement as the LSX series has, copied from the ford tunnel port BTW.
The truth is the LSX design is much closer to a ford SB, than it is a chevy SB, so do we want to call it the GM LSX designed by ford?
Chevy fans would love to take credit for the LSX design and if you continue to call it a chevy engine as they do, the common belief will continue to be that chevy designed it.
The truth is in 1992 the GM Powertrain group knew that the SBC was getting long in the tooth and they needed a world class V8 completely redesigned to take over for the archaic SBC. By 1997 they had a new design with nothing in common with the SBC except bore spacing.
It was hailed as the most advanced design pushrod V8 by many engineers in the auto industry. Now if you want to believe that the same group of engineers that couldn't get anywhere near the HP per cubic inch from their SBC were the same people that designed the LSX engine, be my guest. The engineers that chevy had couldn't design such an advanced package and to give them credit for such a world class design is foolish. The flat out didn't have the pool of talent to design and build such an engine.
Add to the fact that the LSX is a GM trademark not a chevy trademark pretty much shoots the theory that chevy designed it. The picture below shows who owns the trademark for the LS Series engines and Darton has it correct giving ownership to the correct group that is responsible for this engine.
GM Powertrain owns and runs every plant since 1997 that builds GM Powetrain parts. NO GM division owns manages or designs powertrain parts since 1997. This is a known fact that there is no division of GM that any longer builds or designs any powertrain parts.
Rex, you live in in Michigan, I would think that it would be pretty easy for you to substantiate what I've already put down here. The LSX series is erroneously called a chevy engine by many enthusiast magazines, Hot Rod is obviously one of them. The facts are all available to anyone that wants to do a little detective work, the LSX is NOT a chevy design or a chevy product, since GM Powertrain has had control of all the engine plants since 1997 it is impossible for it to be a chevy product.
There is a lot of material on the web to bear out what I've said, do the due diligence and find out the facts. Hot Rod magazine is not a good source to pull from, much better resources out there.