Is The 6.2 LS Engine Any Good? Here’s What Owners And Mechanics Say

Every General Motors LS engine is special, starting with the LS1, a 5.7-liter Gen III small block V8 which debuted in the 1997 C5 Corvette. In 2008, GM released the 6.2-liter LS3 based on the Gen IV small block design as the base engine for the C6 Corvette, and it also added variable valve timing to the L99 variant for the 2010 Camaro. In addition, there are two supercharged versions of the 6.2-liter LS V8 engine, the LSA and LS9. The 6.2-liter LS engine family ranks among the most powerful GM LS engines ever used in production vehicles.

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 Rick T on the Corvette Forum, reports that the “consensus is the LS3 is a great engine” with few problems other than the occasional water pump failure. The CTS-V Owners Forum is filled with accounts of rock solid reliability, even when the LSA is lightly modified to add more power. In a discussion about which is the Best LS Engine? Redditor mpopo12 says “they’re all good.”

The 6.2-liter LS was also a popular engine in GM pickup trucks and SUVs, where it was most often referred to as the 6200 Vortec engine. The 6200 Vortec LS engines carried the L9H, L92, and L94 engine codes. While some owners express concerns about the 6.2-liter Vortec engine’s active fuel management system causing issues, the fact that there is a 200,000+ mile maintenance thread on the Silverado and Sierra owners’ forum speaks volumes about the engine’s potential reliability.

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Tom Nelson of Nelson Racing Engines (NRE), a company known for providing crate engines with 2,000 horsepower talks highly of the LS engine design. However, in the interest of full disclosure, NRE crate engines have evolved beyond the level of a stock, or even slightly modified, 6.2 LS engine. 

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In a video interview with The Drive, Nelson says there are “a lot of things about the LS that make it special.” The three aspects he highlights are that they have the potential to make lots of power, they’re lightweight, and they’re relatively inexpensive. While he prefers a cast iron engine block for its strength in NRE’s high horsepower builds, he likes the aluminum engine blocks because they have a tendancy to cool better.

Nelson and the mechanics at Pace Performance feel the LS engine is likely the most popular choice for engine swaps. The LS has found its way into a wide variety of GM cars and trucks, Jeep Wranglers, Mazda Miatas, and even a custom airplane.