Pal O’ BangShift John Coyle tipped us off about the existence of a truly amazing project that has been documented on the forums over at LS1Tech. There’s a couple of guys who are actually building a V12 LS engine and they are doing it in such a was to learn how to make them to sell in the future. They are cutting, welding, machining, and blending two LS engine V8 blocks in order to get their V12 design. We think that this is hot rodding in its purest form and we can only imagine what this engine is going to sound like. LS engines already have their own unique wail as it is, but adding another four holes to have harmony will certainly result in a tone and note that no one has ever heard before.
Before you go and start thinking about this being some sort of haox, we’ve added a video of the builder walking around a block that wears a modified head on one side and no head on the other. That’s proof that the engine has six cylinders on each side and that the cathedral port early LS heads look even sexier when they have two more intake ports per side!
The engine will eventually end up in a Nissan Z car from the 1970s or very early 1980s. In theory, anything with an inline six should be able to swallow this thing. Can you imagine one of these in a Jag E-Type? How much would that piss off the Jaguar crowd? Our guess it lots squared. What’s the displacement? Try 534ci on for size. These guys are making a two piece crankshaft for the engine, they’ve built special cams, and we’re thinking that they’ll really need to keep up on the oiling and cooling system to keep all of this hotness cool!
If you want to learn more, click here to visit the LS1Tech.com thread that goes through as much detail as you’re going to read about these engines. Understandably, the guys building these things are keeping their cards close to the vest on specifics involving the construction of these things. It seems that their plan is to get the bugs work out and then offer them for sale to the public. This is just some totally bad ass stuff. As cool as the the V12s build from mashing a pair of big displacement GM V6 engines together are cool, they don’t have near the suds that these things will. Can you imagine the torque and how smoothly these babies should run?
CLICK PLAY BELOW TO SEE A VIDEO OF THE LS V12 AND THEN SCROLL DOWN TO SEE MORE PHOTOS! THIS RULES!
LSV12 walk around from LSV12 on Vimeo.
I’m thinking this could be the future of high powered experimental aircraft, as well as possibly some Unlimited air racing efforts…Someone needs to do this with a Mopar hemi (race hemi, not the new “hemi”)…
They have a LONG way to go to beat the horsepower and reliability of race prepped Merlins, 4430 and 2800 radials.
I remember that a number of years ago, someone
Was working on getting an aluminum (KB?)
Hemi to certify for aircraft. Never heard the
end result.
If these are the guys that I think they are, the first V12 they built ended up in a 2/3 scale P-51 kit.
COOL! reminds me of the Torque / glaval corporation V12 very similar in theory – it was a BBC plus 4 with 4 big chief heads cut for 3 cylinders each.
I wanted to take an LS head and re-work it to bolt onto a slant six. I was inspired by a guy who has welded LS heads together to make them work on a Chevy six.
That reminds me, that back around ’71, I saw a little dragster powered by a Ford 6. It’s cylinder head was 2 boss 302’s welded (furnace brazed) together. It was really cool. I wonder whatever happened to it.
I think I’m remembering the same article – it was in a Maverick or Pinto?? Crazy thing about that is that they sliced up Cleveland heads, furnace brazed as you say, but at the SAME TIME in Australia the new Fords had a new cross flow head that was essentially the same thing….if these guys had known about that, I doubt they would have gone to the trouble…
Whats fun IMO about this is back in my model building , ‘ kit bashing ‘ days ( 60’s and early 70’s ) I used to regularly create very intricate and detailed V12’s out of Chrysler Hemi’s , Chevy big block’s and Ford SOHC’s engines on a regular basis for my contest winning custom models ( built a V12 Hemi Challenger the year MPC had the kit on the shelves )
And now …. here’s someone doing it for ‘ real ‘ . Always though it was a good idea ….. but it took someone like these guys to bring it to reality . Thanks for making my dreams as a kid come true LS1Tech ! Now get that bad boy running and into the snout of some very cool muscle car . Do I see perhaps …. a V12 Vette … or 68 extended nose Camaro in your future guys ? 8)
This guy is local to me. I could go check him out if ya want me too. I saw his posts on LS1tech earlier last week.
this build is idiot. resonance of a 90 degree wobble on 60 degree fire..at 534 cubic inches. Come on retards, go back to the drawing board.
Woke up on the wrong side of the bed ….. got something against these guys ….. just having a bad day … or simply an internet Troll expressing his/her opinion no one in real life would give a ___ about never mind listen to for so much as a minute ? Which is it !
I’m not sure how “smooth” this 90* V12 is going to be. V12’s require a 60* or 120* bank angle to be inherently balanced. A 90* V12 would have to be odd fire or split crankpin like the Buick V6’s. The pics show a common crank pin, so I guess they have chosen to go the odd fire route. I’m guessing this is why GM only played around with V10 and V16 LS based engines.
Hense the reason I want to do the same thing but with SHO/Volvo V8’s since they are 60* but take Duratec V6 parts. Theoretically I could even use an Aston V12 crank but good luck to me finding one.
Ford via Aston Martin has already beaten you to it I’m afraid . Not much sense reinventing the wheel thats already been made ….
the duratec is already made in a V12 version for jaguar. You can put it in your car.
Not true Ryan Falconer built a v12 based on a SB Chevy it uses a 90deg design and runs smooth as silk. I have seen and heard one first hand.
http://www.falconerengines.com/faq.php?faq=falconer_v12
That’s pretty amazing. I once dreamed of welding two RAIV heads together and putting them on a Straight-8 Pontiac engine. A Ram Air Six. LOL!
How can you not like this project? This is the very heart and soul of what it’s all about in Hot Roding
Looking forward to hearing this engine run, would a new Camaro have room to fit this?
Yup! Chubbie needs 12 cylinders to do what everyone else’s 8’s do.
yep, those LS motors sure are junk (shakes head)
it’s actually going into a plane. magazine in australia did a feature on the guys.
putting it in something about the size of cessna.
Like it or not, the Idea of some one taking the time and actually trying to build this desrve an A+ for effort at least. and not just sitting in their garage talking about doing something. this could be awesome, could be a boat anchor.