Joker Instituted

im getting some head work done on my 2.3. it's geting milled, fully ported, going from a 1.735 intake valve to a 2 inch valve and a mild cam. now, i was told that the exaust valve does not need to be touched but i still know nothing about what's really going on. my pistons and rod's are cast aluminum and i need something alot stronger. my compresion is going to be higher and i need to know where to look for stronger piston's and valve's. and am i going to have to do andthing to the ecu after all this is done?

Stewart Scott

I know that when you get into the changing of the cams you might need to change the parameters of your ecm, how that gets done on a four cylinder I don't know. maybe a computer out of a 4 cylinder SVO, turbo 4 or something. pistons you can match bore, pin, stroke specs size at any speed shop and buy aftermarket but I have to ask why are you doing all this to a four banger? Insurance or gas mileage?

shinysideup

For the CHICKS mang!

EFI-Unlimited

Contact Plazma about what parts are what on the 2.3, and contact me about how to make the electronics work.

Brian
EFI-Unlimited

Just Dave

Stock pistons will be fine. Your motor makes 112hp at the most. With the mods you mentioned (assuming you can get the electronics squared away) will only give you 150hp at the most. Stock pistons will be fine.

Joker Instituted

i really dont trust the stock piston's in mine. they are cast aluminum and in my last motor the 3rd rod just shatered and it was all stock. im thinking about maybe getting a set of stock svo piston's though. if anyone has them.

Just Dave

Well stock SVO pistons are tough to find because they are bulletproof (made by TRW), but no longer available. You'd probably pay as much for stock SVO's as you would for aftermarket pistons which you could have made with higher compression (what you'll need to get any power from an N/A 2.3).

And the NA and turbo rods are the same, and turbo guys make 400hp from stock rods. So you don't need aftermarket rods.

Joker Instituted

^ i'm just not trusting my stock rod's cuz they are cast aluminum and i here that the svo ae forged whatever. and if MY stock rod shatered into a million pieces i dont want to go threw that again with having power under the hood and wasting the money for the build just to see it in peices

Just Dave

Rods are the same NA vs turbo. Pistons are different, head is different (turbo head has bigger chambers for lower compression).

Here's an interesting tidbit. The only difference in a turbo block and an NA block is the oil return fitting on the right side. Most NA motors have the boss cast into the block, some even have the boss drilled with a plug, but here's the interesting part.

When Ford was making turbo motors, they would weigh each block as it came down the assembly line, the heaviest blocks they found were set aside and the boss was drilled for the turbo drain line.

So you can see Ford didn't go through too much trouble to build the turbo motor.

The rods are the same, you don't need new ones.

Drewster

I would trust Dave's insight on these 4 bangers.