Tech & Auto
Why Corvette’s Blue Flame Six Engine Is Still Worth Knowing About
By BRADEN CARLSON
The Blue Flame Six is Corvette’s first engine, based on the architecture of an inline-six-cylinder Chevrolet truck engine known as the Stovebolt Six.
Chevrolet engineers took that truck engine and worked some magic on it. Improvements included bumping the compression ratio up to 8:1 and installing a new camshaft.
At the time, it had the highest lift numbers of any production car camshaft at 0.405 inches and 0.414 inches for the intake and exhaust, respectively.
Combining these upgrades with a triple-carburetor setup (one for every two intake ports) netted enough extra zest to get it to that seemingly low 150 horsepower output.
A double-action mechanical fuel pump and Corvette-specific ignition system made it run in tip-top shape to its top speed of 108 miles per hour at a hair-raising 4,800 rpm.
However, the Blue Flame Six quickly became outdated because Corvette began to work on the now iconic V8 engine, which also ushered in the first Corvettes with manual transmission.
Even though the V8 engine spelled the end of the Blue Flame Six, this historic engine carved the initial path that led us to over 70 years of Corvette history.