2.3L DIS head work.

[Mforrest327]

Alright. Here in a few weeks im going to be taking my head off and having some work done to it. Not running a turbo or anything else fancy at the moment but my valves are startin to talk to me a little too loudly and since my buddy is a machinest.....I might as well get the head rebuilt and machined a little if i can. Dont know crap about head work so any input.....thats possitive.....will be great.

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

For a non-turbo engine you'll want to:

1: Work on smoothing the ports out. Try to get a larger radius on the corners and floor of the port. Grind the valve guide boss even with the rest of the port. Don't enlarge the port too much; it will kill the bottom end performance (and the 4 bangers don't have much to begin with!)

2: Mill the head surface down a little to raise compression. Stock they are something like 9.4:1 compression so you can go a little higher. If you do a good job of smoothing the combustion chamber surfaces you can probably get away with 10:1 compression on 87 octace if you disable one set of spark plugs (makes the flame travel slower, so that pinging is reduced).

3: Try to find another cam that has a little more duration and lift than the stocker. Something with about .420" lift and maybe 210 duration.

These three things should make for a pretty lively 4 banger for daily driving. Of course don't forget to upgrade the intake and exhaust systems for the better flowing head you're installing.

You can do more (like hogging out the ports, cranking compression up to 11:1, and getting a huge cam) but these will make it less driveable on the street and more suited to circle track use than anything.

 

[BogusSVO]

hit ebay up and get a set of the big valves too, they are like $80 shipped Engblder sells them, I have used several sets ad had good luck with them

make sure your buddy/machinist installes hard seat inserts on the exhaust side and bowl hogs out some to get the lump out of the bowl.

stock head on left, BV head on right

 

[Mforrest327]

Thank you both for the info. It already has a cat back flowmast exhaust on it so the only thing I would need to do would be upgrade my intake system. I only run premium 91 in all my trucks so with doing so, would I be able to run all 8 plugs? I tried one day to unplug one set of plugs from the module and drive it and it started and idled just fine up to around 1500rpms. After that, she had zero power and would spit and sputter and everything. Plugged that one back in and unplugged the other one...same thing. So if I could, i would like to keeep running all 8.

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

Hmmm... That's weird. It should run just fine on one. I know mine does, and has for the last 15,000 miles (I'm running a turbo computer which has the timing curves set up for a slow burn single plug head which means if I run both I get pinging). I'd look into the coils and wiring to make sure everything is in good shape. Most likely you have 1 half of each coil is bad but the good halfs of the coils are on opposite cylinders, so when both are in you have one good plug on each cylinder, except it's the drivers side on 2 cylinders and passenger side on the other two. But if everything is working right, it'll run on one coil just fine (except it will only fire the primary (passenger side) when cranking, so it shouldn't be able to start if you disconnect the primary side coil).

As for being able to run all 8 on premium - I'd say that's a good possibility. Really you just have to try it and listing for pinging. If it does it without pinging, you're good. If it pings, disconnect the driver's side.

 

[rurouni20xx]

theres more to running only four plugs than just unplugging one coil pack, you have to do something to the edis, theres another forum posted that tells you what to do as there are others that do it just fine with the stock pcm.

 

[Mforrest327]

Well I would prefer to leave her alone and run all 8. Its kind of cool to tell people that my truck has 8 plugs and have to go pop to hood because they dont beleive me. Im going to be getting ahold of my buddy tomorrow to see how much he would charge me for the machine and head work. Sevensecond has already gave me my lift and duration for a suitable cam to slap in her but I was wondering how much I can grind the head down so I dont go too far and start slapping stuff soon as she cranks over. Should I replace my valves and springs with OEM? Or should I go with something a little more fancy?

 

[BogusSVO]

you should have the .343 stem valves in your 92.. hit ebay and get a set of the Bigvalves from Engnbldr about $80 and if your going with an aftermarket cam.. you will need springs and retainers

 

[Mforrest327]

Alright, thanks. Is there a certain pound spring I should get? Or do springs and retainers match up with what valve your running? Like I said, I know nothing about heads so Im trying to learn and hope I aint buggin you guys. I really appreciate your help.

 

[BogusSVO]

the springs have to match the cam, slider cams run less spring pressure than a roller

 

[Mforrest327]

Now whats the main differences between the different types of cams? I have heard or roller and hydraulic and now slider.

 

[BogusSVO]

both the slider and roller are HYD, that is the style of HLA's, the roller cam has wheels on the follower, the cam slides on a slider, and has more fricton and wear than the roller.

 

[budah30]

I have a 94 2.3 witch cam and valves should I use

 

[BogusSVO]

budah.. you should have the roller cam and the .343 stem valves