Tuning the GM LS7

"All you need to know about tuning the GM LS7 engine!"

Let us review LS7 tuning and point out the ultimate mods that work. GM LS7 provide a fun base for your project and with the right modified parts like a remap, turbo improvements and camshafts you will positively maximise your driving fun.

History of the Engine

• 505 bhp  at 6300 rpm  470 lbft at 4800 rpm

Tuning the GM LS7 and best LS7 performance parts.

Weak spots, Issues & problem areas on the LS7

The LS7 engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the LS7, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

Best LS7 upgrades

When talking about the best top for your LS7 engine, we are going to focus on the tuning parts that give the best value for money.

Significant gains on the LS7 can be made from camshaft upgrades. Altering the camshaft profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the engines power and power output.

Fast road camshafts usually raise the power through the rpm band, you could sacrifice a little low end power but the higher rpm power will improve.

Competition camshafts, raise the higher rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

In a typical daily driver should ideally to optimize your bhp range to your preferences.

I'd be shocked if you have found a LS7 Race cam is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas.

Some LS7 engines respond better to more or less aggressive camshaft durations so view each engine as unique.

The engine timing and fuelling also will say much on the power gains you'll hit.

Longer valve durations can alter the power band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Stage 1 modifications: Sports exhaust manifold, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Intake headers, Fast road camshaft, Panel air filters.

Stage 2 modifications: high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, induction kit, fuel pump upgrades, Ported and polished head.

Stage 3 modifications: Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Twin charging conversions, Competition cam.

ECU flashing allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the upgrades you've fitted to your LS7.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the end result usually vary depending on the upgrades you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

It is vital to any engine tuning project to feed fuel and air into your LS7

Intake headers transmit the air during the suck phase from the air filter and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

The bore size, shape and flow rate of the Intake can make a noticeable change to fuel delivery on the LS7.

Most headers are ripe for aftermarket parts, although some OEM provide well optimised headers.

Increasing the LS7 valve size, doing some 3 or 5 angle valve jobs and porting and head flowing will also boost power, the fantastic side effect is it will allow you to get increasing the power increase on other parts.

Turbo upgrades

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your LS7

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.

When a car is fitted with a turbo parts are going to make more power and most turbo engines are made with strengthened components.

There are reliable limits for every engine, with some being incredibly solid and some only just able to handle stock power

We recommend you find these limits and fit stronger pistons, crank and engine components to utilize the power.

It's not unheard of tuners spending a loads on turbo charger upgrades on the LS7 only to have the LS7 explode when it's been finished.

Bigger upgraded turbo units commonly suffer low end lag, and little turbo units spool up really quickly but do not have the top end engines power gains.

In recent times the range of turbo units is always evolving and we commonly find variable vane turbo units, allowing the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end torque.

Twin scroll turbo units divert the exhaust flow into two channels and push these at differently designed vanes in the turbocharger. They also help the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is not unusual that there's a restriction in the air flow sensor MAP/MAF/AFM on the LS7 when loads more air is being drawn into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped performance at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp and torque gains, although harder to get working. We have this article on twincharging if you want to read more.

Fuelling

When you raise the power you will need to look at to the fuel delivery.

More power needs more fuel. We strongly recommend you to be generous with your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% capacity when specifying an injector, this accounts for injector deterioration and allows you some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

All the following flywheel power targets will assume an injector duty cycle of 80% and a base of 58psi of fuel pressure at idle.

Exhaust

You may need to improve your exhaust if your current exhaust is creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is good even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find this will reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst installed, so adding a better flowing high performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

For more information on Tuning your LS7 engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our LS7 owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which modifications were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our LS7 guides and tips are kept up to date.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under GM. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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