It seems wherever you look these days, everyone is building a boosted LS pushing over 1,000-horsepower with ease. The LS and LT love boost and big power numbers, but the art form of maximizing performance naturally aspirated from a late-model GM V8 will never be boring, and the team at Late Model Engines is always pushing the limits with our favorite V8, and their new canted valve LS heads help them do exactly that.

Canted Valve Charm

You may have heard the term “Canted Valve” before, but what does it mean? It’s all about valve angle. All production LS cylinder heads have a single valve angle for all sixteen valves, and the intake and exhaust valves are parallel to each other, just like the earlier generation small-block Chevys that preceded it. With the exception of the LS7 with a valve angle of 12 degrees, LS engines had a 15-degree valve angle, and aftermarket LS cylinder heads usually have an 11-degree valve angle.

However, the cylinder heads found on big-block Chevys and the Gen V LT engines utilize a canted valve cylinder head design. On a canted valve cylinder head, the intake and exhaust valves are at different angles to optimize airflow for the intake side and the exhaust side, and the valves are not parallel but angled to the center of the cylinder to unshroud the valves for more flow, and opens up the opportunity for larger valve sizes.

LME’s Canted Valve LS Heads

LME took those attributes and developed a clean-sheet LS cylinder head to take advantage of these benefits for maximum airflow for racing and max-effort LS builds. Late Model Engines starts with a brand-new 6-bolt bare casting sourced directly from a U.S. foundry. These castings are built with a thicker deck surface for improved head gasket retention and an overall beefier structure. The added material not only helps the heads tolerate higher cylinder pressures than OEM or cheaper aftermarket pieces, but also provides plenty of room in the runners for CNC machining to the customer’s needs without being limited by thin walls.

As part of the canted valve redesign that required repositioned valve guides and reshaped the ports, the valve spring pockets needed to be raised as well. This adjustment leaves more material around the seat area, improving strength under high spring pressures and allowing the pockets to be machined for larger-diameter valve springs without compromising durability.

Before any machining to customer specifications, LME installs CHE bronze valve guides along with CHE’s interlocking valve seats. These components ensure the seats stay locked in place under extreme heat and abuse. From there, the canted-valve LS heads can be tailored to suit either boosted or naturally aspirated builds. Options include titanium intake valves, Inconel exhaust valves, and a variety of valve spring packages from LME or PAC to match the intended application.

Billet Intake Goodness

Part of LME optimizing the valve angles and port shape for maximum airflow is that no off-the-shelf intake manifold will bolt up. But with the increased performance of the LME canted valve LS heads, you wouldn’t want anything less than the best. LME offers different billet aluminum intake manifold designs to match the ports on your heads for the best performance.

You can have a dual-square-bore-flanged intake manifold, a forward-facing intake for improved hood clearance with several throttle body options, or a single plane 4500-flange high-rise intake that LME used during development testing on a 468 cubic-inch LS with LME canted valve LS heads that made 1,018 at 8,400 rpm and 705 at 6,800 rpm naturally aspirated on an engine dyno.

Strength, Airflow, and Proven Results

LME’s canted valve LS heads prove that naturally aspirated power is far from dead in the LS world. By rethinking valve angles, reinforcing critical areas, and pairing the design with billet intake options, these heads offer racers and builders the airflow and durability needed to push late-model GM platforms well beyond stock limitations. Whether the goal is a high-revving NA monster or a boosted setup with massive cylinder pressure, LME has created a cylinder head package built to deliver uncompromising performance.