2.3L upgrade....

[Shinlee]

well...tell me if this sounds sound, or like a really really dumb idea please.

i have a 92 2.3 n/a, and i want to beef it up a little bit.

putting a 2.5 stroker kit on it, and a stage 1 turbo cam kit, so basically all the internals are going to be completly rebuilt. the engine should then be worth yeilding ( with u/d pulleys, ram air, ranger header ) 160-170 ish HP, and strippin it down with speed glass on it, so i should be able to pull low 14's in the quarter.

after this, when the funds become available, i am going to install a t3/t4 hybrid, with turbo header, 3'' down pipe, and 3'' exhaust, intercooled as well so i should be in the low 11's to high 10's.


any thoughts on this idea?

would appreciate some feedback pls

 

[RustBucket]

It sounds like you're trying to build a turbo motor without hanging a turbo on it right away. I think you're going to end up spending more money building the motor one way then changing key parts to go the other. The main thing that comes to mind is pistons. You're not going to make any real power if you put the forged, dished turbo friendly pistons in your N.A. stroker. The only 14's you'll be seeing will be your 0-60's You're going to spend money building that motor twice that could be used elsewhere.

I'm not a fan of building dual plug motors for power. It can be done and has been done, just not by me. There's just too many things that need to be done to get them to live happily under boost. The head on your '92 is horrible. The later dual plug heads are much better from a flow standpoint but I still think high boost will require some serious EEC tuning.

Without seeing the cam specs, its hard to say for sure what a "Stage 1 Turbo cam" really is. If a cam is best suited for a turbo charged application, putting it in a N.A. motor is like putting snow tires on a Florida car. Yeah it'll work, but not as good something else better suited for the intended purpose.

If you're final goal is to have a turbocharged motor, then you should build it that way from the start especially if you're on a budget. Nothing kills a budget faster than backtracking.

Something to think about too is that non-intercooled stock turbo motors were rated at 175hp off the showroom floor. Now there's a foundation to start from.

Bottom line, if you want to build a dual plug stroker motor with all the goodies you can hang on it, then all of your parts decisions should be based on that goal. If you want to throw a turbocharger on it and crank up the boost then your decisions should be based on that. You can't build both within the same motor.

That's my thoughts anyway.

 

[samickguy15]

I agree with Rustbucket. I would stay in stock trim until you can get the turbo. I would suggest the header and intake stuff, but no rebuild until turbo time.

 

[Shinlee]

well, thanks for the answers first off.

i wouldnt rebuild the motor twice, would rebuild it as if i were setting it up for the turbo, then, leave it as is, and when i had my turbo stuff ready, just pop it on.

basically rebuild the engine with turbo friendly parts, then save money up for turbo, and just drop it in, does that sound decent or not?

 

[RustBucket]

Yeah, but you're probably not going to be happy with the motor in between the rebuild and the turbo installation. The turbo pistons are dished reducing compression quite a bit which hurts power.

What I usually do when I plan a major upgraade such as this is to get all of the parts together to do everything at once. In this case, I'd get all of the parts I needed to rebuild the motor, everything I needed to install the turbo charger, and anything else that went along with the plan. Once I had everything, then I'd tear it down and do what I wanted to do.

Like Shinlee said, throw a Ranger header and a cold air setup at it in the meantime. You can probably modify the cold air setup to work with the turbo when the time comes and sell the Ranger header on ebay.