13 Details About The Z06 LT6 V-8

When Chevrolet unveiled the 2023 Corvette Z06 at the Petersen Automotive Museum, several development engineers were on hand to answer our feverish questions. Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter fielded them with grace, but the man of the hour was Chevrolet small-block assistant chief engineer Dustin Gartner. A group of current Corvette owners was in attendance, and the nuts and bolts of the recently revealed LT6 and its astonishing 670-hp output-making it the most powerful production naturally aspirated V-8 ever-was all they wanted to talk about. The DOHC engine did indeed steal the show, and Gartner was a real sport about diving into its nitty-gritty details. Naturally, we pestered Gartner with our own questions to learn about some of the LT6's details that weren't in Chevrolet's press release.

The LT6 is nicknamed "Gemini"

If you watched Chevrolet's launch video for the Z06, you likely caught a glimpse of a rocket that was very conspicuously placed on the engine's front cover. In order to keep information from slipping by using any sort of identifiable nomenclature that might tip anyone off, engineers nicknamed the LT6 "Gemini." It's a nod to the Corvette's link to NASA astronauts and a highlight that this Corvette team's "moonshot"-a lofty goal to build a naturally aspirated V-8 that would surpass the LT4. In addition, Gemini is represented by the Roman numeral II to represent the constellation's famous twins, and the LT6 has twin intake plenums and twin throttle bodies. The rocket cast into the engine's front cover-which also has a Roman numeral II-is one among dozens of easter eggs found in the engine bay. Gartner didn't tell us how many exactly but gave us a hint: "There are actually more inside the engine than outside." The Gemini rocket is used on each piston and just about anywhere inside the engine where a part would need to be marked for proper installation orientation.

Five camshafts

Yeah, there are two camshafts mounted above each cylinder head, each activating two valves per cylinder as you'd expect on a 32-valve V-8-but there's also a camshaft mounted in the valley. This isn't some kind of vestigial leftover from the small-block's evolution to an overhead-cam valvetrain, either. Instead, this short, two-lobe cam drives a pair of high-pressure fuel pumps that each supply fuel for one bank's direct injection system. Nestling the pumps in the valley between the cylinder heads and below the sizable intake manifold helped to muffle the noise inherent in those high-pressure pumps.

See the remaining 10 "Things You Should Know" about the Z06 LT6 V-8

Source: Brandan Gillogly - Hagerty

Posted 11/5/21