General Motors Reveals the Power and Torque Figures of its New V8 Truck Engines

• The 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will introduce two new V8 engines.

• The 5.7L version will generate 402 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque, while the 6.6L version will deliver 481 horsepower and 501 lb-ft.

• This will make the 6.6L-powered GM trucks the most powerful naturally-aspirated models in their segment.

When General Motors unveiled its new for 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra earlier this summer, it didn’t provide many details about the new V8 engines that will power them.

Indeed, we knew these trucks would introduce a new generation of small-block V8 engines to replace the current 5.3L and 6.2L units that have seen their reputation tarnished over the last few years.

Now, the automaker has released horsepower and torque figures for both of the new eight-cylinder powertrains.

For starters, the new 5.7L engine, which will replace the 5.3L as the Silverado and Sierra’s base V8 offering, will produce 402 horsepower and 428 lb-ft of torque.

This amounts to an increase of 47 hp and 45 lb-ft over the older engine, and crucially, makes the 5.7L-powered GM trucks more powerful and torquier than both the Ford F-150 5.0L (+2 hp / 18 lb-ft) and the Ram 1500 5.7L Hemi (+7 hp / 18 lb-ft).

The other engine, the 6.6L V8, which will replace the 6.2L unit as the top powerplant in the quarter-ton GM pickups, will generate an output of 481 horsepower and 501 lb-ft of torque, a boost of 61 horsepower and 41 lb-ft of torque over its predecessor.

In addition, these figures make the new 6.6L V8 the most powerful naturally-aspirated light-duty truck engine on the market.

By comparison, the Ford F-150’s 5.0L V8 is its only naturally-aspirated engine option, with all others being a turbocharged V6 or a supercharged V8, which can be found in the Raptor R.

For its part, Ram recently introduced a 6.4L naturally-aspirated V8 as an option for its sporty RumbleBee 1500 lineup, but this engine falls just short of GM’s new 6.6L, with an output of 470 horsepower and 455 lb-ft of torque.

At the moment, General Motors doesn’t have a factory supercharged option for its new engines that could compete with the Ford Raptor R or the Ram 1500 SRT TRX, but such a configuration could be coming later down the road.

Maximum towing for the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will be achieved with the smaller of the two V8s paired with the Double Cab chassis and rear-wheel drive, a combination that can’t be ordered with the 6.6L.

With a maximum of 13,700 pounds (6,214 kg), the Chevrolet Silverado will best the towing capacity of the Ford F-150, while the GMC Sierra will equal its rival from Dearborn with a max tow rating of 13,500 pounds (6,123 kg).

Despite their larger displacements and higher performance figures, the automaker says the 5.7L and 6.6L V8 engines will be more efficient than their predecessors, although this remains to be confirmed by independent testing.

Apart from this pair of new V8s, the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra will also be powered by a revised version of the 2.7L turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which will deliver 350 horsepower (+40) and 455 lb-ft of torque (+25 lb-ft). This engine will be the one to choose to benefit from the truck’s 2,340-pound (1,061 kg) maximum payload. A new 10-speed transmission will replace the 8-speed previously paired with this engine, improving towing performance and shifting quality.

In addition, the Duramax 3.0L inline-six turbo diesel engine will remain available, and while it also received some updates, these were focused more on improving reliability and emissions, which explains why the output remains the same at 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque despite new pistons, injectors, a revised turbo vane, and a new NOx sensor.

The 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra should reach Canadian and American dealerships by the end of 2026.

Source: Road & Track