There was nothing as exotic as the 1992 Chevy LT5 small block coming from a domestic manufacturer during that time period. The Lotus designed heads, the Mercury Marine connection for building them, the 400+ horsepower output, all of it was wild. The first small block the the camshafts outside of the block freaked out many people but put smiles on he faces of thousands more who bought them and pounded on them. The engines were placed in the ZR-1 model of the Corvette that stirred the same feelings among Corvette lovers as the ZR-1 models did from decades back. These were romping, stomping machines dressed in a pretty spiffy package for their era.
Because the volume of production for these engines was to be so low, Chevrolet contacted the actual building of them out to Mercury Marine. The company had an outstanding reputation and the ability to be flexible with their production. Basically 3,000 units per year was the expected volume and Mercury gladly took on the business. Motor Week did a piece where they went to the Mercury engine plant and followed various parts and pieces from machining to final assembly.
The cool thing is that these guys were literally getting the raw parts and making the engines from there. Each one of them got run on the dyno for an hour before heading to Bowling Green. The awesome “Wet Vette” is also featured here and that’s a whole story in and unto itself.
This is a fun look back at one of the coolest engines of the 1990s and one of the most unique in Chevy small block history.
