2.3L ('83-'97) Unknown 2.3 built by my grandfather for the dirt track.

[egreene9012]

Hello, everybody. I may have something interesting for you all. Let me know if this isn't the right place for this question since this is the ranger station and this engine isn't going into a ranger. Anyways, I have a 2.3 that my grandfather built for dirt track racing maybe some 15-20 years ago and has since sat in the back of his garage. I don't know what year it is or whats been done to it. From what he told me before he passed away is that it is a mostly complete engine (all parts should be there, maybe not put together), and that it is hot rodded to hell and back. He claimed that it should make ~400 horsepower and rev to 10k naturally aspirated but I'm pretty doubtful of that. I know it has a high compression ratio because I asked him about putting it in a road car one time and he said it would need a thicker head gasket to run on pump gas (I've never heard of that but it makes sense i guess).

I'm sure you can guess but I'm no engine expert, I've timed one before but that's as far as my hands on experience goes. I want to get this engine out and get it running but obviously I would like to avoid blowing it up in the process. My question for you all is how should I go about this? I have some pictures but they don't show much, I didn't want to dig into it before I got any advice on it.

Pretty vague post I know, but I'm kind of in the dark here. Below you'll see that attached pictures and hopefully I can get you any other information you might need.

 

[franklin2]

If he could run it to 10k, then that is how he is getting 400 hp out of it. An engine like that would be lousy for street use. No low end at all, you would have to rev the guts out of it to get any power out of it. But in a very light track car it would probably go pretty good.

Also to rev it to 10k, he has very high dollar crankshaft, rods and bottom end in it. Do you know how much force is involved in sending a piston up and down the bore of a engine at 10,000 rpm?

 

[egreene9012]

If he could run it to 10k, then that is how he is getting 400 hp out of it. An engine like that would be lousy for street use. No low end at all, you would have to rev the guts out of it to get any power out of it. But in a very light track car it would probably go pretty good.

Also to rev it to 10k, he has very high dollar crankshaft, rods and bottom end in it. Do you know how much force is involved in sending a piston up and down the bore of a engine at 10,000 rpm?

I don't know that he ever ran this specific engine, and I'm not sure how he built all of his other ones. He also may have been a bit of an embellisher so I'm not sure that the 10k and 400hp numbers are actually true but to embellish to that point it must be a pretty hot engine. I'm also not sure what I would even do with it. I have a stripped foxbody chassis I could turn into a track car and I also have a 2001 miata that will likely need an engine soon but that would be a whole nother project after getting it running.

Any advice on how I can figure out whats actually in it?

 

[JoshT]

If was built to revs to 10k as stated it was built for top end power. Like franklin said, it won;t have much for bottom end, and wouldn't be very happy in a street driven car or truck. What ever it goes into needs gears to be geared to keep RPM up there to make power.
Don;t know about it being a high dollar crankshaft, but has a lot of work put into the rotating assembly. The LIMAs had a stout bottom end, the cranks and rods were the same for NA and Turbo motors, but kind of RPM is going to take a lot of balance. If he expected to turn it that fast and have it last tehre was a lot put into balancing the bottom end.

To find out what is in it, open it up and look for numbers. If it's a reworked factory crank and rods, there might not be much other than the factory markings, but might show some marking where they were ground for rebalance. Any aftermarket parts is going to carry the maker's branding and part numbers. Pistons should have a part number and maybe a measurement indicating if for a standard (STD) or oversize (020, 030, etc) bore.

That cam and valvetrain do look new. There should be makrings on the end of the camshaft that may indicate what it is. No idea about the valves and springs. Does not look like there are rockers installed. You'll need to identify the camshaft and measure valve stem diameter to get a proper idea of which oness are needed. There were three styles used from the factory over the years. Wide and Narrow, relating to the valve stem diameter. The channel in the rocker that sits over the valve stem matches to the stem diameter. Then wide version also had roller or nonroller depending on the camshaft profile, narrow version was all roller rocker.

As for the compression ratio thing. There are several methods for changing compression ratio. Pistons with varying dishes/domes. Thicker and Thinner head gaskets. Milling heads. I Can;t tell you which of these things your grandpa did, but in some way he heas increased compression ratio for more power. More compression makes more power, but it also generates more heat and requires higher octane gas. An easy way to decrease compression ration would be to install a thicker head gasket, that has the same effect as increasing the size of the combustion chamber in the cylinder head or installing a piston with a lower compression height.