Okay. So I am at a new junction. I've pretty much removed everything from the engine and head. I plan to tear it all the way down and at the least get everything cleaned.
I was thinking of the following and would love some suggestions and/or recommended parts or procedures.

Engine:
Complete disassemble.
Clean block and have it inspected.
Should I do anything with the crank? Have it inspected or any kind of machining?
New bearings.
New rings.
New gaskets.

I considered talking to John about new rods and pistons, but really not sure I want to deal with that expense right or the worry of having a cool guy engine.
Anything I'm missing? Any recommended brands or sources for any of the parts I need?

Head:
Ugh. I sometimes hate the thought of spending any money on such a POS.
But I know I should probably do the valve stem seals. I was considering considering other things like cams and blah. Don't really want to get into the expense required for big valves and large amounts of porting. Not sure about any specialty tools I'll need to source for any head work.

I'm also converting to EDIS for the new ECU. At least that is the plan and the wheel and parts are on order.

Head: Valve stem seals and call it good. Don't look to see if the valve seats are cracked, because they probably are, then you'll freak out and waste time trying to find a head that isn't cracked. Maybe, if you're really bored, grind out the worst of the nasty bits of flash metal in the ports. Cam isn't worth it unless you're going north of 250hp. I do have this Lunati roller from Rapidough$$$ around here somewhere that makes no power at all until about 4800 rpm (about the time a stock turbo runs out of poop, so it has an utterly useless power band).

What was the compression on the block? If the numbers were over 140 and consistent across all four, I'd call it good. Then again, I'm probably not the one to talk to there, since I've always either had somebody else build the engine (they screwed it up), or slammed a junkyard engine in (much better luck).

Honestly, JV has forgotten more today about engines that I'll ever know, so let him pipe in, although I'm just kind of echoing his advice.

Spend money on Cozzie turbine housing and an intercooler. Tune from there. It'll make plenty of power for gravel. On street tires, my street XR4 with a 7" LSD will just light the tires through third gear on gravel, and the only things that engine has are a ghetto 3" exhaust, a 40bob.com turbo elbow, so it's 3" all the way (not as nice as a Cozzie housing, but it was in stock), and a Merkur Depot radiator and tiny intercooler, run through a Mustang SVO ECU and large Vane Air Meter.

Pretty good is good enough for the old 2.3 Lima.

Spend the big money on a badass turbo Duratec that will make John Lane skeered.

I can't believe the Boport heads for $1800. At that point, I would definitely build a Duratec.

My setup as it is:
3" exhaust, all the way. Cat, no muffler.
2WD Cossie IC, rotated upper.
Merkur Depot tubular manifold
AEM Stinger ECU with new harness

I ran 15 psi at hill climbs, 20 psi for fun at CORE testing, and 10 psi at the rally. I'd like to be at 15 psi for rallies (250-300 hp maybe?) and 25 psi for hill climbs, track days, and for fun.

I would spend the 2 hours on the head cleaning up all the casting flash, there is a ton of waste material in there. It made a huge difference on the Folvo.

I was running 16PSI all year with no problems, no overheating even at Idaho. That dynoe'd at 197whp, 239ft lbs with a Ranger roller and 2.5 inch exhaust. It made 200+ torques at 2700rpm, so I really don't see the need for 3" and all that stuff.

I am now running 19psi or so, and it feels WAY quicker. I swapped in the A237 cam, and I kind of like it now. The ranger falls off at 5100, it now goes to the limiter cleanly. BTW, on the wide band, mixture at 10.5 or so even at 19psi. so no worries.

I got all my parts at Carquest, rings, bearings, gasket set. I think less than $400 with a new water pump and thermostat. I cleaned and re-used the pistons. I checked the bore, then honed it. Plastigage the crank clearances.

Spend the time and money. well worth it in my book.

Yeah. I was thinking maybe that cam or one of the Bo 1.X cams.
It's literally been 5 years since I rebuilt the engine in the Colt. I haven't had to tear into an engine since.
What'd you use to clean up the head passages? Any special tool needed to disassemble/reassemble head? Any tricks?

As an obscure thought...check car-part for the 99 to 01 2.5 engine. Looks like a 60k motor can be had for several hundred. You'd have a few more CCs, more tqs, roller cam, better flowing head..I think. Probably be about the same as messing with the old 2.3.

Here's a link to a website that has lots of info http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/4cylinders.html

Or could be a terrible idea.

Hey Grant,

If you are this far, I personally would not reassemble without considering all of the following. I am making these comments without knowing the last time the engine was worked on, or your budget.

Head:
- Head clean
- Valve job; I would not bother with 3 angle if turbo'd, especially on a budget; ditto for head porting
- Valve guides (wobbly valves don't seal well); valve stems checked
- Cam bearings good? Be aware that hot tanking ruins cam bearings; cold cleaning process are avaialbel if you want to maintain the cam bearings in either head or block
- Valve stem locks and springs checked
- Rocker arms, fulcrums, lifters, all checked (hard to describe and differs per valvetrain type). chek all oiling passages for rockers
- Check head surface for true and flat; very important for an engine seeing a lot of very hot and cold cycles like for racing. I assume that any AL head will need the surface trued until checked.

Block:
- Clean, and remove at least the most pronounced casting flash. Carefully clean all oil passages before and again AFTER all machine work is finished, no matter if/how the shop cleaned it. I use scalding hot soapy water followed by scalding hot clear water rinses; the hot water heats the block to where it will dry in a a minute or so, with little to no rust.
- Always remove ring ridge if you are not doing a new bore
- Always new rings
- Check block surface for true; flat surface is vital to prevent head gasket failures, especially if turbo'd
- Crank bore alignment is usually not a big issue in my experience, especially if the engine has never been overheated
- Pistons: I have personally never re-assembled an engine for rally without new pistons, unless it was just a disassembly check. I always go with a fresh bore and hone to preferred dimensions. If cleaning and re-using pistons, then make sure you check ring groove side clearances. If a bit wide, the rings flop around and don't seal right and wear out fast.
- Hone the bores
- Oil pump: This ALWAYS gets a complete check for clearances and dimensions; if there is ANY question or marginality, a new one always goes in.
- Timng chain, gears, and chain guides checked for excess wear, almost never reused in my race engines.
- Crank and rods checked for side clearance. Journals checked for diameters and smoothness. Very mild grooving in a journal that is up to dimension can be polished with croucus cloth and leather string. I always polish the journals.
- Balance crank if a first time overhaul with a particular crank. For rods and pistons, you can match and balance them with a decent scale and your own work. (4 cylinder engines)
- Any polishing of rod beams or shotpeening of crank/rods depends on how the engine will be used and the manufacturer and process. (For example, 70's Opel 1.9L cranks were forged; no worries there!)
- Check big end bore on rods for roundness when caps are torqued; this insures the bearing halves clamp the shell halves right. If anything is amiss, have the big ends resized. If there are off a bit, you get spun rod bearings.

I always clearance crank and rod bearings with plastigage. This verifies the check made on the dimesions earlier. (I run my bearing clearances at the wide end of stock and the pistons diameters per the type of piston manufacture.)

Lots to talk about with assembly and other things; getting tired of typing.......But, much of the checking can be done by any careful or intelligent person with a bit of education, good observing skills, and simple tools. Careful work will easily give engines that don't fail....due to assembly and planning work, at least.

Good luck with it,
Mark B.

With the head off you can use a regular spring compressor, with the head on you need one of the ford style that hooks on the cam and depresses the valve. I just used some good carbide burr tools on a straight die grinder. Nothing fancy.

That A237 cam is not really a Turbo cam, but it still comes on hard, but gives you a bunch more over rev. Plus it makes that super sexy blappty blappty at idle.

First, all youse young un: Bengt-Erik Ström----Engine builder and tuner guy at Saab from 1959 thru 1980 and then own shop since building V4, Saab8 and 16v Group A cars; Gunnar Forssberg, the man who did VW Germany‘s rally engine development Forssberg motor in Södertälje, and Janne Carneborn, owner of ENEM (Nacka Motorrenovering), who did all of Opel rally engine development from the early 70s thru the late 90s and MRT---Mazda Rally Team when the GTX and GTR were in the WRC
ALL agree in face to face conversations that ''220 bhp is enough for 2wd car, after than you should worry about the power spread''.Äespecially if you are buying your tires yourself.
All three, virtually the same words..
And you boys have seen the videos, you know guys are going fast,---well their guys they have built for have been the fastest in the country.

And we have so amply seen our own local beloved VW man Tom Buress (Tom! come get your gawddam rotors and pay your bill!) was easily the match ON ACTUAL STAGES with his barely warmed over 2,0 liter 16 non turbo VW with limp-wristed girly girl cams to the certainly over 450 bhp and probably over 500 bhp turbo 3,0 Volvo of John Lane.

So you all want to get sdtiffies for higher bhp, fine, but you donät need it and you're missing the point of doing the turbo thing. The point is Ft-lbs.

Grant, look at your rod and main bearings. See any copper? Even when really washed up and using a 100w bulb? Good, then the bearings are fine, stick them back in.
I stress: the bearing shells are lead/tim overlaid and that shit is soft like old snot. ANY iregularities will show on the surface. If the bearings are all purdy, the journals are fine LOOK NO FURTHER,
If you see obviously scoring in the bearings then you have to check the journals and housing bores. (The main journal bore in the block, the big end ID) But before writing all about THE CORRECT WAY---and it ain't plastigage---- tell us what you see.

There's no flashing worth thinking about on the Ford, it ain't some Misterbitchy with flashing as bad as a Chrysler.

Valve pockets: beautify the 1/4" approaching the seat, that'll net you 85% of the benefits of "porting" at 1/5 the cost. That's good enough.

Surface block, surface head.
Check guides and stem seals.
Obsessing on flow? 2,5 Ranger valves have 7mm stems, the OEM Xratty things are nearly 9mm. Instant better flow. Cheap at better junk yards everywhere. Just bang in some guides.

I don't know shops NOT doing good 3 angle valve grind, so like whatever.

Plan on replacing springs, unless they're sorta newish. They do sack out bad on the 2,3.

OEM Pistons are good Mahle forgings (finish machined in Brazil) but good material, strong and free.
CHECK RING GROOVE wear.
There is NO POINT in replacing rings if the grooves they sit in are at .004, It's a waste of money
The 2.5 thing Gene mentioned is hi comp with crappy cast pistons, forget it.

Those forged pistons is what makes the turbo 2300 a GOOD POS rather than a bad POS. Don't lose them lightly.

CHECK the oil pump, its probably OK, maybe just do the oil pump relief spring.

Chase all the main and head bolt holes (M12 x 1.75) with a tap, get 'em clean, chase the flywheel bolt holes (M10 x 1)

Personally I wouldn't worry about a cam, just stock but springs oh yeah.
96mm bore means keep it low comp of find you have to compromise drastically on ignition advance to run even low boost.

Remember 220 is plenty of powerz---if you open the throttle.

And we have the advantage of decent gearbox spacing and shorter final drive, we're not forced to try and do everything with just more power---we got gearing too.

So powerband and OPEN THE THROTTLE.

Grant - how much oil were you burning? What's the mileage on the motor? Any particular reason you're pulling it apart? Even a fully built motor isn't a guarantee of flawless reliability. Just look at Aaron or my experience over the last couple years. I think there's something to be said for OEM setups at near OEM power levels. KISS, right?

Why not save your time & effort and go buy another JY motor and keep it as a spare...or get the car back together in 2-3 weeks so we can all go play in Steamboat. I've got an extra set of snows.

Dave

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DaveK
Why not save your time & effort and go buy another JY motor and keep it as a spare...or get the car back together in 2-3 weeks so we can all go play in Steamboat. I've got an extra set of snows.

I do have 4 weeks of vacation left for the year and enough in my savings account to finish buying parts...

The engine is a complete unknown. From what the kid I bought it from said, the previous owner had made one running car out of two. There was alot of blowby, but I don't know that I ever really checked the oil after I changed it the first time. Kinda the same story with the cheap brake fluid that was put in to make sure I had no leaks and ended up being what remained in there the entire time.

KISS is definitely on the list. Which is part of what makes me not want to tear it down, but I figure a simple check and regasket wouldn't hurt. What would be smart would be to stop where I'm at, reassemble the whole thing, and get John building me a spare near stock engine that we can load into the back of your BMW after Olympus.

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john vanlandingham
ALL agree in face to face conversations that ''220 bhp is enough for 2wd car, after than you should worry about the power spread''.Äespecially if you are buying your tires yourself.

Yeah. And I understand and respect that. That's why I want something that I can get there without having to strain stuff much so that I can also get way past there for the special events we have here like hill climbs, CORE, Pike's Peak and the like.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. John, Mark, Andrew, Sean, Dave. I appreciate it!

Head is now figured out. Now have to decide what to do about the bottom part. Stick with stock or get some aftermarket rods and pistons and any machining needed...

What about shaving head to bump compression ratio in these?
Should I go with aftermarket oversized pistons and long rods? Pretty mirror on bores and not much crosshatch left. How much overbore should I do on the block to clean it up?
I'm thinking since I'm going E85 and a bad ass head maybe I should go with new pistons and long rods and maybe 9.5 or 10:1 compression ratio. On an endurance road race car the same head on a .030 overbored engine (JE pistons, crower rods I think) with 9:1 compression with stock T3 turbo was at 304 hp and 318 ft lbs at 10 psi.

Quote
NoCoast
What about shaving head to bump compression ratio in these?
Should I go with aftermarket oversized pistons and long rods? Pretty mirror on bores and not much crosshatch left. How much overbore should I do on the block to clean it up?
I'm thinking since I'm going E85 and a bad ass head maybe I should go with new pistons and long rods and maybe 9.5 or 10:1 compression ratio. On an endurance road race car the same head on a .030 overbored engine (JE pistons, crower rods I think) with 9:1 compression with stock T3 turbo was at 304 hp and 318 ft lbs at 10 psi.

Motors with smaller bore can tolerate higher static compression without detonation.
Small bore like under 90mm.
Like 86mm---or those little Honjas and Fau Vee mit 81mm.
Big 96mm bore with the not very nice shape combustion chamber---unless you want to fuck around with a unoptimal ignition curve which costs more, then stick with around 8.0:1
You have no restrictor to deal with so there is no reason for making pointless problems by imagining benefits from compression ratio..

In any case ANY discussion of compression ratio without taking into account
intake valve closing ABDC is silly.