This is a Chevrolet 6.2 liter LT5 V8 that remains in its factory crate, having never been fitted to a car. When it was introduced in 2019 it was GM’s most powerful crate engine ever, offering 755 bhp and 715 lb ft of torque.
The LT5 crate engine was offered for sale to those who wanted to use it in their own builds, but General Motors shocked the motoring world in 2021 when they announced without warning that they would be discontinuing the LT5. As a result, unused LT5 crate engines are now in high demand, as it seems unlikely that GM will ever offer a crate engine this powerful again.
This is one of the original studio shots of the LT5 V8 when it was released as a crate engine. Many where shocked when it was pulled from production after just a year.
The only production car to receive the LT5 was the 2019 ZR1 Corvette, fewer than 3,000 would be built. Although no-one outside of General Motors knows just how much they spent developing the engine, it seems likely that it was a significant sum.
They started with the earlier LT4 V8, which could be considered the LT5s older, though less powerful brother. The LT5 was built around an alloy block with with six-bolt, cross-bolted main caps paired with rotocast aluminum cylinder heads.
The engineers working in the General Motors Small-Block Group worked closely with the engineers from supercharger manufacturer Eaton to develop the new R2650 “Twin Vortices” 2.65 liter supercharger with four-lobe compressor rotors producing 14 lbs of boost – up from 9.4 lbs in the earlier LT4 engine’s supercharger.
Inside the LT5 you’ll find a forged steel crankshaft, forged powdered-metal steel connecting rods, polymer-coated forged aluminum pistons, cast-iron cylinder liners, jet-spray oil squirters, and a hydraulic roller tappet camshaft. It has a 10.0:1 compression ratio and its rated to produce 755 bhp and 715 lb ft of torque on pump gas.
This is one of few LT5s that remains unused in its factory crate, just waiting for a new owner.
The LT5 crate engine you see here was bought by the current owner last year and it has remained in its rate ever since. It’s now being offered for sale in unused original condition on its original shipping pallet, including the engine control system kit.
It’s being sold out of Bay Shore, New York on Bring a Trailer and you can visit the listing here if you’d like to read more about it or register to bid.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.