Zac Quinn 
You don’t just read MC&T to learn about new vehicles coming to the market or updates on what’s happening in the industry. You also tune in to learn about some of the spectacular creations people put together within their garages, be it restomods, retromods, or absurd engine swaps that no one has ever done before. One such example of this is Larry Hofer, who recently took delivery of a brand-new C8 Corvette and, after only putting 4,000 miles on it, decided to swap out the already legendary engine of the car and replace it with a Chevrolet 8.1L Vortec Big Block V8.
C8 Corvette Big Block Engine Swap: Details
Even crazier than Lingenfelter Performance sizing up the LT2 V8 to a wonderful 7.0-liters in a C8 Corvette, the video above recently uploaded to YouTube by Greg Quirin highlights all the ins and outs of this 8.1L V8 swap project, which will adapt to the existing 8-speed Tremec DCT in the C8 Corvette Stingray (modifying the transmission in the C8 continues to be an issue due to encrypted software). That said, the engine underwent serious modifications, including a dry sump (added since the car’s computer will already be looking for it) and new cylinder heads. The cylinder heads had to be custom cast since there aren’t any companies that make cylinder heads for direction injection on big-block engines.
Most of the modifications to the big block have been done to ensure that it has a seamless integration into the C8 Corvette, which should bypass any errors with the vehicle’s computer as the computer checks that all of these things are working correctly. The video gives a deep dive into what has made this conversion possible, and it’s pretty wild, especially because this is likely the first and may be the only C8 Corvette ever to have a big block conversion done to it.
Probably the most impressive thing about this build is that all of the components and goodies *should* fit into the engine bay of the C8 Corvette, and though it’s not hooked up in the video, just by looking at the walk around, it’s pretty easy to tell that it’s going to be a tight fit. But, according to Hofer, they’ve already put the engine in the car a few times to test fitment. Everything somehow fits, minus some modifications needed to the hose for the dry-sump pump, which is only a quarter of an inch too long, which puts into perspective just how perfect every component needs to be. Next, we need a video of the C8 Corvette running with the big block in it and placement on the dyno to see what this thing can do.
