touring power, build an engine !!!! Options

[orangecrate]

So I been workin on the orangecrate off an on for what seems like forever... seems I now have rod issues. Knock knock.... Any way I'm lookin at building a motor, or rebuilding. Inexpensively (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) I have only 2 real conditions I want to meet. 1- It will run 80 mph all day thru the desert in the summer in Phoenix and sit at stoplights with out cooking itself. 2- It will pull the 6% grades that you hit leaving the valley at 70 in the summer without cooking itself. 75 would be nicer. Guess I"m talking a torque motor. This is a stock 72 with stock gearing. And maybe one size up tires. Did I say it needs to be reliable? Like Phoenix to Portland and back any time of year reliable. And inexpensive.. I'd love to buy a Raby motor but $$$. Oh yea. I will be doing the assembly myself. And I'd like to use as much of the 1.7 as possible if possible. Thanks for the input. Build away. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

[VaccaRabite]

When I did my motor (2056) it started as a 1.7L case and 1.7L heads, a 2.0 crank, Stock Mahle 2.0 cylinders that I had punched out to 96mm, KB flattop 96mm pistons. At the time, that was the proven recipe.

The case needed to have the registers opened up a little, and needed to have the registers flattened out (the case was a bus case, and the registers had started collapsing...) The heads needed significant work to flow the air I was sucking and pushing. I did not change spark locations.

When I built the engine the first time built did not last long. I flat out did not know what the hell I was doing and did a lot of stuff wrong. It ran way too hot and did not make enough oil pressure. Learn by doing I suppose. I tore the engine down before it did that part for me, and was able to reuse a lot of my parts.

When I rebuilt it I added a LOT of valve train goodies, and lowered my static CR from 9.2:1 to 8.7:1, spent a lot of time on my oiling system blueprinting the pump and adding an oil cooler under the rear trunk, and went from carbs to $Microsquirt$.

I'm still in the proving stage of my current engine, and have only taken it on runs about 2 hours long and within the radius of my AAA towing range. That said, I have yet to see a head temp above 360 - even when climbing long Appalachian hills in 5th gear at 80+mph. It just eats it up! It has maybe 2000 miles this summer (Odo on my car has never worked) and has worked really well in various conditions (including a 50 mile run in pouring rain that cropped up one day). My car as a whole has issues (mostly electrical in nature - I think the wipers are pulling WAY too much current when I have to use them) but the engine has run very very well.

My engine is also pushing 150hp at the crank, dyno proven. (127 at the wheels during initial tuning). That is well above average for a 2056 (the standard for a 2056 is 120 at the crank, and I'm making more then that at the wheels).

As to money... I bought the engine as a "running" 2056 for $2K. This engine was supposed to be a drop in my car and go deal. Yeah no... Had to totally rebuild it, but it had great parts. Ceramic lifters? Yes please!

Then (as I said) rebuilt it again a year later learning from my rookie mistakes. Lots of head work. $2K in heads alone from a local guy. $3K for the Microsquirt setup. $2K in tuning. Oh, and the actual parts I had to buy, lets call that $2K. So lets call it $11K (including tuning and all the other stuff - not just the engine) for a good 150hp T4 small bore engine that I never have to rev above 5K. The upside is that I spent this money in little chunks over several years and even got to drive the car a little between chunks as the engine evolved - but still.

If I was doing it again.... First off I'd buy NEW heads from Len. Its frustrating but I KNOW I'm leaving power on the table with my heads. And I know his heads will run longer then my old ones will. At the time I could not afford his work, and I HATED knowing that I was going to be running a compromise instead of the best heads I could get.

And if I was starting from scratch - I'd be looking long and hard at a subaru conversion OR make a stock engine with stock EFI and spend the money needed to get it right (which will still be $5K+ easy, with roughly 1/2 the power).

My engine has been a journey, and I've spent more time and money on the engine then I did restoring the entire rest of the car.

Zach