How To Disable Active Fuel Management on a C8 Corvette

Active Fuel Management is standard on C8 Corvettes with the 6.2L LT2 V8 (Stingray and E-Ray). If you are concerned about the technology, here’s how you can drive without it.

It’s safe to say that folks don’t have too many qualms with the C8 Corvette, even now, years after the mid-engine sports car initially debuted. Sure, there are a few minor annoyances that some folks have with the C8, but for the most part, they’re precisely that – minor annoyances. However, one of the more controversial topics revolving around the C8 is its use of Active Fuel Management (AFM), which is present in the base Stingray and E-Ray, but not the Z06. Over the past year or so, AFM has remained at the center of a pretty hot debate in the CorvetteForum forums, too.

Active Fuel Management – which is GM’s term for cylinder deactivation technology – shuts down half of the LT2’s eight cylinders when they’re not needed to improve fuel economy, then reactivates them when they’re needed. This type of technology is pretty common in the automotive world today, even in certain sports cars, though some question how it will impact long-term reliability in vehicles. After all, it’s just another thing that can break or malfunction, or perhaps lead to accelerated wear and tear on select components.

There’s a lot of misconceptions about how Active Fuel Management works in the C8 Corvette, however, which is something that CorvetteForum member tadda recently cleared up quite nicely. Here, we can see that AFM is actually disabled when the Stingray is in Track Mode, but otherwise enabled in fourth-eighth gear when the car is in My Mode, Weather, and Tour, or fifth-eighth in Sport mode.

Additionally, if “engine” and “shift” are set to Track in Z Mode, AFM is also disabled by default. As x86guru also points out, the 2024 Corvette Stingray received a bit of a revamped display for Z Mode that is quite a bit different than preceding models, but the impacts of these settings are still precisely the same.

In any event, the purpose of AFM is quite clear – it provides a 12 percent improvement in fuel economy, according to GM, and enabled the automaker to stick with a naturally-aspirated V8 rather than going with a smaller multi-valve or turbocharged powerplant amid ever-increasing fuel economy and emissions requirements.

As for the long-term impacts of such technology in the C8 Corvette’s 6.2L LT2 V8, well, that remains to be seen. AFM or Displacement on Demand debuted in GM’s trucks in 2007, and on the Corvette’s LT1 motor in 2014. Since the technology’s debut, failing lifters have damaged valve train components on some, but not all, customers’ engines. (An issue that didn’t exist in pre-AFM LS-era engines.) As such, working mechanics and engine builders aren’t fans.

But, for now at least, it’s worth noting that Active Fuel Management at least enables GM to sell us precisely what a lot of folks expect and want – a powerful and capable, naturally-aspirated, V8-powered sports car.

Photos: CorvetteForum

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