Hey man, good luck with your build up but you might have better luck with 420a advice at 2gnt.com. Def not trying to sway you from tuners but it is more 4g63 related i'm sure most of us can agree on. Although 420a help is also offered commonly.

The 2.2L rebuild kit is a good choice; but make sure the pistons are low compression (8:1 or so) so you'll be ready for boost. The low compression will actually make driving miserable until you do get turbocharged, but it's the only way to rebuild if you plan on a turbocharger.

How much of this work do you plan on doing yourself? Re-building an engine is quite a daunting task; so make sure you read and research as much as possible.

If you're concerned about the head... don't be. A set of turbo grind cams (Crane is a good company for these) would be nice, and maybe a three or five valve angle valve job and some porting to top it all off (both machine shop jobs, not for the DIYer).

The Crane cams, by the way, shouldn't give you an idle problem. They have a more aggressive profile, but not to the point where you can't keep your car at idle.

You don't need to do much to the head otherwise, unless you really want to drop some cash and get all upgraded valves, titanium springs, etc.. I don't think it's necessary though. I actually just found out that Chrysler picked up the 420A head as an abandoned project designed by Lotus for a 2.2L race car. It has excellent flow properties, outflowing all Honda engines and the 4G63.

I haven't seen many race ready heads ready to bolt on, but Howell Automotive (http://www.howellautomotive.com/) sells kits with all of the proper components. You could also always buy built heads from other DSM owners.

The drivetrain is quite resilient and well designed too, as it turns out. There aren't many performance upgrades for the tranny itself, but if you plan on putting down a lot of power you'll want to upgrade the following; clutch, axles (past 300hp or so), differential (here's where you buy the LSD), flywheel.

The LSD is a necessity for a drag racing front wheel drive car. Without it, the loss of traction and wheel hop will kill your times. The Quaife is outrageously expensive (~$1,250) but is consequently pretty much the only quality LSD out there for our cars.

Your oil temperatures and capacity should be OK, especially for drag - but for AutoX, etc., a cooler couldn't hurt.

A newer radiator would definitely be useful in the long run though. Our cars don't run particularly hot, but once you've added all of your bolt-on upgrades, and block flow to the radiator with a front mount intercooler, cooling becomes more of a concern. RadiatorBarn.com has good aluminum racing radiators with a slimline fan for ~$450. Your stock radiator will be good for a while though (provided it's not already leaking) - I would leave the radiator upgrade for later.

Other than that, welcome to the 2GNT community. You seem to want to do things in the proper order, taking all of the requisite steps. Also, I'm glad you've recognized just how much potential your engine has. Don't let any 4G63 owner tell you otherwise.

VelocitàPaola said:

titanium springs, etc..

Click to expand...

Titanium springs havent been Invented yet only retainers.

I'm also planning on building up my 2gnt, but as an all motor car. (I would love to see a low 14 or even high 13 sec. all motor Eclipse!!)

Good sites to research are

http://catalog.exileracing.com/index.php?cPath=215_248&osCsid=ac384572800b008a38d64e758724ab69

and

http://www.howellautomotive.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=117

Oops... typed faster than I thought.

Thanks Paul, that was a lot of exactly what i was looking for!And sadly no, I can't do it myself. I am probably going to pay out my ass for labor. I was planning on ordering all the internals/kits/cams/ect. and then just pay for the labor at some shop. (any ideas how much a min. and a max for how much labor for this would cost if i supplied parts? )But you left me with a few more questions:

I was looking at the Howell 2.2 kit, it said you had to bore the cylinders .40 over. How much displacment does this actually add? If i just had the stock bore with the stroker kit what am i looking at?2.15 or so?2.175? And if anyone knows, what am i looking at for low end torqe gain from this?

If i was going to send the engine out to get it bored would it be to the same shop that i could get my head ported out a bit? What am i looking at for costs to do this? Would it be worth it in the long run to just pay the extra for the bore and a bit of porting?

I was looking at the piston options on the Howell stroker kit and the lowest comp. that they come is 8.6. Does this sound adequete? And you said that the low compression would make driving miserable. How do you mean? bogging? No power? No high end? Idle problems?

Just so you know,, my eventual hopes for the engine is going to be at least 300 (hopes and dreams)after tranny/fuel system/ect. Is there anything else that anybody can suggest that I haven't thought of to make this easier/more reliable/ faster? Thanks again everybody!

300 is an attainable goal, just stick with it and keep researching.

Boring out the cylinders doesn't really add much in terms of power or displacement; there are a few reasons why one should or should not do this though.

In most cases, when rebuilding an engine, it is advisable to bore out the cylinders by .020". It isn't always completely necessary, but it leaves you with a fresh and true cylinder wall. After 100,000 miles on the block, you'd expect a few scratches and imperfections; boring takes care of this.

The Howell kit requires you to bore the cylinders out for several reasons that I don't know specifically (engineered design of the piston, manufacturing techniques of the piston?). Whatever the case, .040" is fine to bore it out to. If you get past .050", I would begin to get weary though. If you bore too much, the cylinder walls will begin to get thin and lose their structural integrity.

I called around for prices in my area, and the average is about $100 to bore out and hone a four cylinder block. Also, the same machine shop should also be able to do the porting and valve jobs (I don't have prices for this though).

Like I said, boring won't significantly change the displacement or power/torque characteristics - only different combinations of rods and pistons will do that.

8.6:1 compression is fine for turbocharged cars. The reason why low compression pistons will make driving miserable is because high compression pistons are what make our originally naturally aspirated cars somewhat powerful at all. When you take away that compression, you lose power (I've heard you gain about 4% of your horsepower with each point of compression)- but it's necessary for a turbocharger... so you can either drive slowly until you get a turbo, or boost on stock internals and then rebuild, or do it all at once. Personally (even though I didn't do this), I think rebuilding first is the right way to go.

May I ask why you're hesitant to do the labor yourself? Lack of experience? No time? Either way, if you can't build the engine yourself, I would look into buying a fully built one from Howell. Take that engine and your car to a shop and just have them swap the engines. It'll probably be a little cheaper that way; maybe around $1,000.00 or so.

If you buy anything from Howell, expect long lead time, though - especially for fully built engines. I've not bought from them, but some friends told me they waited two months for their engines.

Thanks again man,, your full of great info. Does anybody happen to know the compression on stock pistons/know how much hp i stand to lose w/ 8.6 pistons?
I wish i could do the work myself, It's kind of a tease because my dads owns a tractor shop and has the mechanical know how to be able to get through a rebuild w/ relativly few snags. We pretty much just don't have the time to finish it in one day and no place to put an engine less car. It's basically just more than we feel comfortable getting into honestly. How long of a project does it sound like? What kind of things would i need? Are there anysnags or problems that could really mess things up i should look out for? I've never really researched it, we kinda just assumed it would be too much w/ having to pull the engine and all. I'd have to take the tranny out too right?

Stock compression ratio was about 9.5:1. I'd venture to say it'd feel like you have a 100hp car until you get boosted.

Rebuilding an engine is a big task, but if you have the tools and someone with the know-how on hand, I would say go that route rather than pay someone else.

Why not just buy a spare block from a junkyard? Take your time building that up - then, when it's ready, you can just swap it out with your current engine, in a weekend or so. I can get complete longblocks for about $100 in Florida.

You don't have to take out the tranny to get the engine out either.

Read this article on rebuilding the 420A, it's not completely comprehensive, but it's good enough for most people with basic mechanical skills.

http://www.2gnt.com/www/corbin/rebuild.html

Wow man,, that is good idea! I might have to do that. Do you know if I would be able to get a block/stroker bottem/cams/head porting, then would i just be able to take the rest of what i need off my engine and slap it all together? And any theorys on how many hours an engine swap would be if i had mine all ready and built and we took it down to my dads tractor shop ( there's lifts/stands/air compressors/anything else i could ever need there) and put it in ourselves?

I would like to just add some comments, rebuilds are not for amateurs. One wrong move on your rebuild and you could waste the thousand(s) u put into it and have a blown motor. Just for bottom gaskets, head gasket sets, head bolts, rings, oil pump, is around 800, ive done it twice on the 420a, thats with reusing your pistons and rods. You have a 95 so ill give you the heads up, more then likely you will have to "renotch" your "cradle" *bottom half of motor that holds crank in* becuz 95 is the only year the 420a was notched on that side, all the main bearing i've seen at parts stores are notched oposite for the 96-99, The 96-99 is notched on both sides, incase you got 95 style throwback bearings, pretty nifty! I'd definately have a shop work with it, or have somebody help you that has done rebuilds b4. but if you do work on it remember these things, TORQUE in right sequence and to the right specs! Use "assembly lube" on your cams, rod bearings and main bearings, never reuse a oil pump get your crank measured at the machine shop and machined if necissary, tag ALL your bolts and parts, maybe even take a few pictures!

Sorry to bump an old thread but I was reading the link for use in another thread and saw that the author of the article used in that link used anerobic sealer for the bedplate as well. This is not the correct sealant to be used here and the correct sealant part number is 4773257 available from the chrysler dealer or have the part number cross-referenced.
Doug