The pistons are connected to cast rods via full-floating wrist pins. This was done to reduce the piston slap often heard in LS1 engines. Though not proven to be detrimental to the engine, the slap noise nonetheless caused customer complaints.

For Corvettes, there's an all-new oil pan design. It eliminates the winged style of the LS1 pan as engineers devised a better internal design to fight high-g oil starvation.

New-design baffles inside the Corvette's oil pan are designed to keep the oil pump pickup submerged in oil during high-load cornering maneuvers. The elimination of the previous-style pan's wings also reduces the oil capacity of the pan by one quart.

Simply put, the LS2's cylinder heads are from the Corvette Z06 LS6 engine, including the same unshrouded-valve chamber design and port configurations. With the revised flat-top piston, however, compression jumps to 10.9:1--up from 10.5:1 in the LS6.

Like the LS6 engine on which they were first proven, the LS2's heads have unshrouded valves. They measure 2.00 inches on the intake side and 1.55 inches on the exhaust.

Nothing revolutionary here: The LS2's composite intake manifold is largely the same as the LS1's, although it's been changed to reflect the engine's various sensor relocations. It also will mount the throttle body on a slightly upward angle to prevent water puddling at the base.