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Lima 2.3 bottom end max revs? Reliable revs..


Blmpkn

Toilet enthusiast
Article Contributor
Joined
Feb 15, 2020
Messages
6,598
City
Southern maine
State - Country
ME - USA
Vehicle Year
1996
Vehicle
Ford Ranger
Drive
2WD
Engine
2.3 (4 Cylinder)
Transmission
Manual
Total Drop
Shackle flip
Tire Size
235/60/15
My credo
Its probably better to be self deprecating than self defecating.
What's the max rpms one of these shortblocks can deal with box stock?

Going to build a head over the winter utilizing a boport cam that extends the power band out to 6k, and the plan is to plop it on a reman shortblock next year at some point.

Tire wrecking burnouts and 8th mile passes would be frequent.. would like to retain as much reliability under such duress as possible lol.
 
Crank RPM is usually limited by its balance and ability to remain balanced with higher horsepower/pressure
Cast iron cranks are OK to 6,500rpm and 400HP usually, flaws can exist, lol
Forged steel cranks 8,000rpm
Billet steel cranks 10,000rpms
 
I'd say I'm far more worried about the rod bolt's ability to keep the cap attached than the crank.

6k rpm, I wouldn't even give it a second thought. At 6500+ a rod bolt upgrade would make a lot of sense (required), and by then you should probably be doing pistons and rods as well anyways.
 
Stock bottom end can supposedly handle 350hp, so do with that knowledge what you will... that is of course based on the turbo engines that just have different pistons. The cheapest forged pistons available are in the circle track world...

the stock rev limit is 6000rpm, I hit that all the time on my turbo engine...
 
Right on, thanks gents.

I was curious as to whether or not putting ARP hardware in the rods was going to be necessary.. doesn't sound like it if I stick with the stock limiter.

Boport says that their stage 1.5 n/a cam is good for +25 wheel horse without tuning. Im hoping that between the cam, some port matching, my exhaust, and replacing the stock intake tubing with something smoother flowing that I'd be around 150 or so..

Boport also sells somewhat of a 'custom' valve set for the limas too... the backsides of the valves are cut in a manner to allow more flow... how much more flow and what that does to the power level/delivery I'm not sure... but for 200$ for the set I'm probably gonna go with those.

Considering having the head shaved to the point where bumping up to 89 octane is necessary as well.. just depends if the power/efficiency increase would be worth it or not.
 
For the record, don't know if I mentioned it above, too lazy to read... I did put ARP rod bolts in on the rebuild since I had a rod bolt let go at like 5000 rpm WOT, but it was probably my fault when I'd rebuilt it before, I'm more carfuler with torque on important stuff now...
 
For the record, don't know if I mentioned it above, too lazy to read... I did put ARP rod bolts in on the rebuild since I had a rod bolt let go at like 5000 rpm WOT, but it was probably my fault when I'd rebuilt it before, I'm more carfuler with torque on important stuff now...


I've read that switching from stock hardware to ARP stuff for the rods requires 'rod resizing? I'm no machinist so I have little idea what that means lol but is that something you had done? Or did you just drive em in there and send it?
 
Oh I took every shortcut :), broke my vise installing them (fixed it later by welding it back together...)... I mean I used new bearings and rings, the bores are a bit tapered, pistons undersized because of it, didn't measure races but everything "looked" fine, actually I take that back I believe I did measure and everything was close but I didn't go as far as plastigauge on the bearings...

Probably should have had the rods resized, it's basically just making them round again after you screwed with them, but I gambled and it's been working for like 7 years...
 
Oh I took every shortcut :), broke my vise installing them (fixed it later by welding it back together...)... I mean I used new bearings and rings, the bores are a bit tapered, pistons undersized because of it, didn't measure races but everything "looked" fine, actually I take that back I believe I did measure and everything was close but I didn't go as far as plastigauge on the bearings...

Probably should have had the rods resized, it's basically just making them round again after you screwed with them, but I gambled and it's been working for like 7 years...


Hmmm... how many miles have you put on in those 7 years?
 
like 20k I think... almost all wheeling miles and mostly in sand so high rpm all the time...
 
Man...

I'd like to just go all "send it" and just slap some in without resizing.. but my luck really isn't the best -__- lol. Should probably pony up the dough to Do It ThE rIgHT WaY 🙄
 
ThE rIgHT WaY is the path to stupid, never learn much using ThE rIgHT WaY every time

But we do "learn from others mistakes", which is where ThE rIgHT WaY comes from
So you can do it ThE rIgHT WaY
Or your way so your mistakes can be added to ThE rIgHT WaY :)
 
ThE rIgHT WaY is the path to stupid, never learn much using ThE rIgHT WaY every time

But we do "learn from others mistakes", which is where ThE rIgHT WaY comes from
So you can do it ThE rIgHT WaY
Or your way so your mistakes can be added to ThE rIgHT WaY :)

Cut it out with all the wisdom roonnnn... gahd. 😆
 
If you have a machine shop around it's probably not a big deal to do, they're getting HARD to come by in my area... I'm torn whether I'd just wing it again or do it more right, although I just rebuilt a 302 with strictly Amazon parts (other than trick flow valve springs from Summit), a stick welder and soforth... didn't measure anything but everything looked pretty minty for having 1/4 million miles on it... was way less sketchy of a build than the 2.3L...
 
If you have a machine shop around it's probably not a big deal to do, they're getting HARD to come by in my area... I'm torn whether I'd just wing it again or do it more right, although I just rebuilt a 302 with strictly Amazon parts (other than trick flow valve springs from Summit), a stick welder and soforth... didn't measure anything but everything looked pretty minty for having 1/4 million miles on it... was way less sketchy of a build than the 2.3L...


There are a few machine shops within a reasonable distance which is cool... they all seem to have a bunch of complaints though 🙄 either (alleged) shoddy work.. or prioritizing race motors to the point where having them assemble you anything mild is gonna be a bit of a wait..

The closest shop that doesn't have quality complaints is the place my buddy used for his mild 350 build.. heads were already assembled.. so all the place had to do was install the rotating stuff and put the heads on.. took em almost 8 months.
 

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