Holden V8 5.0 Litre 3 valve

[blue sleeper]

I seem to recall the workers at Elizabeth, creating a 3v version of the Holden 5 litre as a prototype before the Gen 3 came along. I read it in a Wheels/Motor mag in the late 90's. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

[4vxc]

Street Machine mag did a small article about that recently.
Nothing came of it

[MethodX]

GM America were supposed to be experimenting with 3 valve heads for the LS, using a split rocker.
Guess nothing came of that either.

[Dr Terry]

Originally Posted by blue sleeper

I seem to recall the workers at Elizabeth, creating a 3v version of the Holden 5 litre as a prototype before the Gen 3 came along. I read it in a Wheels/Motor mag in the late 90's. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

They prototyped quite a few different head designs over the decades, including OHC & K-Jetronic injection.

The engine design facility that worked on these was nick-named the "skunk works", but was actually at Fisherman's Bend (Port Melbourne) not Elizabeth. All Holden engines were built in the same place since 1948 & then transported to all the body plants. The only one left being Elizabeth.

Dr Terry

[boss351290]

They canned the 3 valve head because it only made a few kilowatts more than the 2v head

[roddy1960]

G'day , Interesting to see this was considered . GM have done a lot with the LS range so I suppose they decided not to complicate it anymore when it worked pretty well anyway ..If it ain't broke , don't fix it you might say .
A mate of mine has a Falcon RTV with the 260 KW 3 valve 5.4 litre V8 and it's had lot's of trouble with cam phaser issues and required a fair bit of moola to sort out on the 3V . I know the Holden stuff is different beast but less complicated for only marginal loss of power makes good sense . I think the 4V quad cam 5.4 L made 290 KW without the VCT issues didn't it for Ford until it was replaced with the mighty 5.0 litre Coyote/Miami . What a beaut donk that is. So is the range of 6.2 litre Chevy mills for sure . Cheers Rod.

[Nu66et]

Originally Posted by roddy1960

G'day , Interesting to see this was considered . GM have done a lot with the LS range so I suppose they decided not to complicate it anymore when it worked pretty well anyway ..If it ain't broke , don't fix it you might say .
A mate of mine has a Falcon RTV with the 260 KW 3 valve 5.4 litre V8 and it's had lot's of trouble with cam phaser issues and required a fair bit of moola to sort out on the 3V . I know the Holden stuff is different beast but less complicated for only marginal loss of power makes good sense . I think the 4V quad cam 5.4 L made 290 KW without the VCT issues didn't it for Ford until it was replaced with the mighty 5.0 litre Coyote/Miami . What a beaut donk that is. So is the range of 6.2 litre Chevy mills for sure . Cheers Rod.

5.4 3V was 220-230kw factory. 5.4 4V couldn't physically fit VCT

[solarite_guy]

Interesting. Chevy experimented with 3 valve chambers for the Gen I small block back in the 60s. Mickey Thompson actually developed a 3 valve small block Chevy for Indy some time mid-late 60s back when all kind of combinations were competing together.. I don't think much happened with it.