What is your FAVORITE 4 cyl for a HotRod project? MPG-HP !

Friends have had luck with Toyota 22R motors.

I can tell you one to avoid even if its free - a late 80's early 90's Isuzu 2.6 4 popper. Had one and saw a lot with cracked heads - I mean a lot of them with cracked heads.

In the 6cyl variety how about the Ford 170? I've heard they do ok. Can actually do 65 mph in them unlike the 144's

 

A '92-up 2300 Ford complete with coil packs and a dual plug head. Trust me, these 4 bangers respond to mods as well as a 350 Chevy, get great mileage and the PCM wiring is Model T simple... In a lightweight roadster, you'd have all of the power you'd want.

Jan

 

I like off the wall shit. Ford 2.3, Iron duke, Quad4 are the SBC of four bangers. If you wanna be different, you have to look elsewhere.

Alfa DOHC, Fiat DOHC, and Volvo 2.3 liter turbo would top my list for a lightweight project. They Italians look nice and you can make them run like raped apes. I'm especially fond of the Volvo. Those came stock in 4000 pound cars, with autos/5 speeds, and disc brake RWD systems. Reliable? It's a Volvo.

How about the 2.3 liter 16 valve Mercedes 190 engine? I think the MB comes in a displacement as high as 2.6 liters. BMW 2.0 liter slant-4 engine from early 320? Bad ass in my book, and I've yet to see one at a show.

One that hasn't been mentioned but should be is the old MGB engine. Came with dual sidedrafts, reasonable 1800 cc displacement, and they are durable. The one in my old 67 MGB GT had cross-drilled crank, and was still in great shape after 100,000 miles when disassembled. People think of them as tractor engines, but tractors run. The gremlins on these are primarilly electrical and fuel-delivery related, and they can be sorted to make reliable power.

I drive a 1 ton Toyota with 22RE engine, and it surprises me almost every day. How's that for some options?

Hawk

 

I knew an all out Ecotec was expensive, but this guy wants $25K for a long block! http://www.racingjunk.com/post/760432/Ecotec.html On the plus side the 2008 Ecotec will have 300HP

 

the early chev II. all used in mercury marine as boat engine.the beauty of this motor is the interchange. same flwheel,belllhsg, starter,pistons valves rocker arm, ect as the v/8 chevy. also a lot of history as a midget race car motor.

 

2300 Ford or Iron Duke.

 

Psst - 2.2/2.5L Dodge stuff is very plentiful and very cheap . . . I had a 275 hp 2.2L and it was very fun drive. Turbo's are plentiful, computers were beyond their years in complexity and power. RWD version available in the Dakota, but use a decent tranny . . . stock one will probably puke in high-power situation. I've got a Dakota sitting out back that was going to donate a 2.5 for a project . . . . hmm.

 

One of these days I'm going to transplant an Alfa-Romeo 2.0L 4 cly & 5 sp. into an old track style roadster.

They look like Offy's on steriods & the early ones had side draft webers.

The rear even looks like an old banjo but is fitted with a limited slip diff.

Just my thoughts....

 

After a careful read of the Bonneville rules, I'm thinking of a 1L two cylinder...superbike engine/trans. With enough torque it might move an 1100 lb car just fine. For reverse you can use a starter motor with a "hinged" drive belt/cog to spin the rear's pinion shaft.[/quote]

1100 lbs. wouldn't give you much traction, don't need no stinkin reverse at Bville
http://oneliterlandspeed.com/index.html

http://www.ricevingeantracing.com/

And the King of them all:

http://www.yacoucci.com/

 

Let's see some more pictures of some of these suggestions!

 

I'm runnin that, the A series, but with a 4 speed. It is harder to find the 5 speed because that's the one a lot of brit guys are using to convert their cars. The better engine to hop up is the L series, a lot more stuff available and a little bigger.

 

ah yes, another crazy bastard after my own heart! my old raceing partner and I ran a vega in mini stock for three years. One of our better engines was dyno'd at 200 hp.! I dont know what the exact compression ratio was,but we had 195 psi on the copression guage when we turned it over on just the starter.We built it just because everybody at the track said it wouldnt run for squat. For seriouse street use run a flow restricter between the block and cylinder head to keep the oil in the bottom end or they pump all the oil into the top and starve the mains.{found out the hard,expensive,way}
R.R.

 

I'm running a Eccotec in a 65 prerunner baja bug...the thing runs great on the flat ground, beats the hell outta my clutch in the hills...bitch'n little motor...but you can replace torq with RPMS?!!!...

 

Joe Gemsa cast these dual overhead cam heads for Model T Ford blocks but this is the only conversion he made for a Model A-B Ford block.

 

The b110 & b210 engine is a copy of an Austin engine(just a bit of trivia).I had a B110(1200) for years,but with a 45 weber sidedraft carb,header,.444 lift cam.It took more abuse than you could believe.Like 8000 rpm every day on a 1hr commute.

 

2nd that one. Plus, they are built like brick shit house. 5 bearings on the mains. Very efficient engines. Run like stink & will tach out at 6-7K all day long.

I've been thinking of one for a back burner project. Also, there rears kinda look like Ford banjos but have limited slip.

 

Yep, it was a variation of it. The original C type engine in my 59 Datsun is a lot closer and even had interchangeable parts. Austin saved Datsun after WWII by contracting them to build the A40 for the Japanese market. That's how they got the rights to copy it. They made improvements over time (E type then J type) and it eventually became the A series.

 

too right..but go for the 1750cc....they rev better than the 2000cc and even though they make less power are faster!!
2000cc pinto had one in a T.....35 to the gallon and 120mph (in the rain at night with no fenders!!!!) have an injected pinto in my Nash pick up at the moment with a 5 speed....30-35 to the gallon and it's as fast as I wana go in it (have had just over 100mph)
Try a cosworth 4 pot (they have them in the Sierra and Escort Cosworths in the uk no idea what they are called in the US) can make over 500 bhp in turbo form..
for sumat real differnt try a Subaru flat 4....shit loads of power and plenty of bent ones around ...can be expensive though
Ford zetec....loads of speed shit for them and popular with the kitcar boys.
BUT
if you want speed, power, and reliabilty......Suzuki Hyabusa motor, 1300cc, and 186bhp in stock form, 6 speed sequential box (ok no reverse but you can get an aftermarket reverse that I think is electric !!) can make over 500bhp if you are that tapped in the head. Have seen a couple of cars running 2 of them in parallel...

 

i was at a columbus car show this summer. a 32 rolled in sounding pretty badass. it had a toyota banger in it. itwas right hand drive and under 4 feet tall. it was pretty cool. for my 4 banger choice i'd go for the ford 2.3

 

I wonder if you could adapt early Olds valve covers to a Mazda rotory, hmmm...

 

Its hard to beat a turbo 2.3 out of a T-bird or Merkur for low budget performance. The Merkur has the absolute best available factory parts in it if you can find one

 

This '50 Study runs a 22R (it's on a Toyota Chassis) and has been driven all over the west from Caldwell, Idaho to L.A., the Bay Area, Salt Lake City, Vegas, and Paso Robles a number of times.
Ain't fast but it's reliable!
Oh Ya!!!
Don't tell anybody it's a secret.

 

I'd have to say Chevette....

 

Then youve never owned a Chevette, I have, it was a turd

 

I've owned a couple...

One was shitty...but it had lived an rough welfare life.

 

If you want a banger get a banger.

 

I don't know the part # but there is a Volvo pilot bearing that fits this application exactly!my son knows what to get so if you send me a PM I'll ask him what it is

 

Looks like one of Mickey Thompsons blown tempest 4s He messed with tempest motors quite a bit back then even ran one in a rail and in the salt flats car Pumpkin Seed!

 

around 75 I think it was either Holman Moody or Ak Miller that built up a 2.3 in a pinto bored .090 with head milled.090 was on the front cover of possibly Hot Rod Magazine pulling front wheels on launch !trans was a Ford top loader 4 speed and had 9 inch rear from a 57 Ford because they blew the pinto trans on first pass and the rear 1st pass with the top loader adapted can anyone here supply me with copies of that car build ?

 

You could also use the Fiat twin cam, very similar 5 main bearings, revs like shit lots of performance parts available.

The advantage of these is they are cheaper to work on than Alfas, like less than half the cost.

I prefer the Fiat SOHC engine to the DOHC as it will rev 7500 RPMs stock. This engine is a transverse mount though. You can take the entire drive unit out of an X 1/9 complete with the suspension and put it in anything you build. I drove a trike made out of a 1500 X engine and a suzuki frame once. The thing was so fast it had my balls trying to crawl up into my body for safety.


I always though it would be cool to build a tube frame and some sort of light aluminum body sort of like a Cheetah for one of these with the engine mounted behind the seat (not very traditional but then again non of this stuff is)