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

Damn! I wish I was paying $2 a gallon. It's approx $5.70 here in kiwi land.

 

Any completely stock Thunderbird Turbo Coupe or Merkur XR4Ti 2.3 Turbo (EFI) will make 300+ hp with nothing more than about 20 minutes work and about $50 dollars worth of parts.

The 2.3 was used in Rangers, Mustangs, Merkurs, Thunderbirds, and a few Cougars. All rear wheel drive. Transmission options include T5's and A4LD's (junk overdrive), and the holy grail C4 if you can find a 2.3/C4 bellhousing. They are out there and show up on ebay from time to time, but they are not exactly easy to find. The cars that they were used in were Mustang II's and Pintos.

4 banger match made in heaven....300-350hp 2.3 Turbo backed by a full manual shift C4. IMO anyway.

 

somebody here joked about using a Yugo.Well a Yugo IS a Fiat built under contract in Yugoslavia!all the fiat speed tricks and parts will interchange from fiat to Yugo engines a few years back there was a writeup on a guy dragracing and kicking ass with a Yugo

 

mmm! toyota truck running gear. might have to drag one of my 36' plymouth parts cars out of the bushes and build a toyota powered plymouth! 1-ADAM 12 SEE THE MAN.......

 

Ford Zetec is my choice, 2 liter, DOHC, 4 valve. The one in my roadster is from a 2000 Escort, BW T-5 tranny, early Hildabrand quickie. Hilborn is making me an electronic injection set up that will have 2 inch inlets, figure around 165 hp but car will be less than 1500 pounds. Should be on the road this summer!

Rex

 

GM Eco-Tec 2.4L dohc with super charger. Have been used in Pontiac and Cavalier drag cars cranking out over 700 hp. Even a mild rendition should get you 250 -300 hp.

 

Jackson Racing makes a supercharger for those......(it's the same one as FRPP sells).

 

Yea, the trick with this one is to take out the 1100cc Yugo engine and put in a 1500cc X 1/9 engine with the dual carbs, cam, etc. Yugos weight alot less than 128s and X 1/9s. You have to brace up the Yugo pretty good because the bodies are so shitty. Lots of people have done this and it really freaks out all the laughers when they get smoked by a Yugo.

I had one once and got rid of it quick after I realized the strut towers were moving apart and tearing the front of the car away from the firewall. Yugo copied the Fiat mechanicals and designed their own bodies. You can tell...

 

My favorite 4 in the Quad 4. I had a purpose built road race car in the early 90's with one in the middle mated to a beefed VW type one box. I recently reaquired that car (or its' remains as it were) and have been toying with the idea of stuffing whats left in a track T or a lakes modified. I would have to fabricate a torque tube like the late model 'Vette uses as I would put the engine up front and the Bug Box in the back; It wastes way too much space in a small car to do a longithunial Mid Motor with an I4 that long. All speculation at this point since I have a serious case of flat wallet due to my Model A project. If anyone is thinking about using a late model EFI 'plant and they are worried about the wiring and computer there are many aftermarket systems for that. The Megasquirt is the cheapest I have found. Even the factory computer can be made to work. If you are woried about splicing the stock harness, then get the newest mill you can as the newer ones seem to use fewer wires. Or at least it seemed like it when I wired the '01 V6 for my Dad in our Anglia last year VS the 92 Quad back in late '93.

 

wonder if i could somehow put my 22re outta my 86 runner, in the olds.....it would go all of 10mph.... :-D

 

Buschur will sell you motor mounts and an adapter kit to put a GM auto behind a 4g63 turbo motor (The 2.0 turbo eclipse/talon/Evo engine) and run it North/South. Those things are everywhere and can make up towards 300hp with just a boost controller and opened up exhaust. (ther later EVO versions are up there stock.) http://tinyurl.com/3484kd The depth of your wallet is the only real limiting factor on HP on those. 5-600 HP is an off-the-shelf proposition on them now since the import racers have been beating on the same motor since 89.

I haven't looked into the North/South conversion on a dodge 2.4, but as someone else mentioned, those are brutal! The nice thing about a Ford 2.3 is that it can essentially be a bolt it... yank everything you need from pick-n-pull and drop it in, no messing with adapters, mounts, etc.

 

Anyone ever consider using a new GM marine four banger? Seems it should be easy and work great. Thoughts?

Here is a link to check it out:

http://www.gm.com/automotive/gmpowertrain/engines/specialized/marine/2007_3000_marine.pdf

 

Is that based on the old Iron Duke?

 

Doing a Supercharged 3.8 V-6, 5 Speed forom a supercoupe T-Bird with the independent disc rear. Hope it works for me. Don't know what kind of milage to expect , but it should be fun....

 

I know this is about 4 bangers, so I am now officially OT....but I just put together a 48 volt, dual hub-motor scooter, dual controllers, dual throttles...tonight down "main" I went through the intersection on a green light with the front tire burnin' and the thing was really torquing out. Quick little monster.....what gas?????????????? Kinda quiet though. (Ain't hot rodding is supposed to be about making new fast stuff that nobody else has??)

 

Did anyone else here that we are going to have a average price of $4.00 a gallon here in the USA this year?????

 

Yeah, I heard that. And, I heard there was a refinery fire in Oklahoma yesterday, so that will help drive prices up. Theivin' bunch of bastards! Mike

 

What about the MerCruiser 224 cubic inch/3.7 litre 4 banger? It uses the cylinder head from a big block 429/460 Ford and it's pistons. It had an aluminum block too. Someone here on the HAMB has or had a car powered by one. Jon Kasse had a Boss 429 headed one that ran 8's or 9's in the quater.

I read once it used a Chevy SB bellhousing pattern and flexplate and took a IH starter. That would be cool, but may not be fuel efficent.

Here's a pic I was able to find.

 

Two other engines that occured to me..though not "traditional"...are the Ford 2.0 and 2.3 DOHC engines offered in The Ford Escort ZX2, Focus, Fusion, Escape and Ranger as well as the Mercury Milan and Mariner, the Mazda 3, Mazda 5 and Mazda 6.

To say these engines are plentiful would be an under statement. A nice bonus is they are reported to be right around 200 lbs and capable of supporting around 300 hp stone stock.

The Focus is currently rated at 37 mpg highway.

 

My middle sons 2001 Escort ZX2 averaged 35+ MPG on town and highway combination driving. Although it is a FWD car, I would think there a RWD combinations that would equal it.
Even installed into a boxy "A", it's still gotta do good on gas.

 

2300 Turbo all the way

I have had my 1986 SVO since I was 15... Its going to be eclipsing 500 hp this year after its rebuild.

Those Turbo 2.3L are built to take a beating... a little intake and exhaust work and you have a 300hp 30 mpg monster....

 

That's the 2.0 DOHC Zetec engine. 135hp. quad4rods.com sells a bellhousing for a T5, a stand alone ignition, carb intake and exhaust flange for that engine. They are common as dirt and tough as nails. I've never heard of one having a failure. Real flat torque curves too.

 

FORD model A and B flathead 4's....they look so much nicer than all these import 4 cylinders...

 

I'd be one of the first to agree with you, BUT those bangers weigh twice as much, cost at 4 or 5 times as much, produce less than half the power in stock trim and not even close to half as much power in modified trim. Plus they are getting harder to find and speed parts cost more than an arm and a leg.

Sure are pretty to look at though.

 

Does anyone know what kind of coils the quad4rods use ine there ignition?

 

Those appear to be the GM DIS coils. Everybody makes them (MSD, Accell, Neihoff, etc) and they are fairly cheap.

 

Are there any late-model, rear drive, Turbo 4cyl. with automatic trans available out there to use?

 

gas mileage comes more from modern stuff like fuel injection. computors, overhead cams and so forth. my 99 caddy eldo just w/northstar v/8 just got 26 miles per gallon on a 250 mile trip from greer az to phoenix.in the 3000 miles i have drove the car i have never gotton less than 22. usually around 25.

 

Some, most don't come from here though. I think the 22R in the Toyota Supra got a turbo, just before they quit making it (early 80s). Most came with a stick though.

The Thunderbird Turbo Coupe should have had one, 2.3 OHC 4 (pinto based) so parts should be reasonable.

The mid to late '90's grey market SR20DET is probably the cheapest turbo 4 right now (assuming it runs good enough to bolt in W/O and overhaul). But the trans is 'puter driven so you hafta get it with (or figure out the interchange) and that might get spendy (everyone I know running them uses the 5 speed stick).

And lastly the Ecotec GM puts the blower on supposedly started out life in a RWD Saab (or was it a Volvo?) with a turbo on it (hence the ability to 'slap' a blower on it). I don't remember if the solstice is about to get (or already has) forced induction, but it must have an auto.

 

I or someone else may have mentioned this in the early days of this thread but I'd like to put a plug in for the GM 3000 industrial engine. It's HP spec is pretty low because its only rated at 3000 rpm but it'll rev quite a bit more than that. The real advantage is that it's a torque monster--well over 160 lb/ft--and the curve is pancake flat. It's huge for a 4, 181cu.in., and it seems more useful in automotive terms than the relatively peaky and much more expensive marine versions. Chevy bellhousings will bolt right up so sticking a T5 or Tremec behind it would be easy. It's not a flyweight but it's over 200 lbs lighter than an SBC so in a light car it should really scoot and likely get 30 plus mpg. The icing on the cake is that with minimal muffling it would sound much more hot roddy than any of the much smaller import bangers. After all it's basically half of a 350 Chevy. It should last forever to boot and although it's a bit pricey at 18-1900 bucks new it might be a bargain compared to chasing all the parts needed to adapt many of the more exotic engines touted in this thread. It's the grunt hog of 4 bangers and as my tag says--torque is king.