Professional Port and Polish and custom cam

I know that I am treading on sacred ground when I ask this question but here it goes.

Has anyone on the this board ever had a real professional engine porter and camshaft designer do the upper end of a Red Block-Jacked the CR to 11:1 and run it on pump gas.

I know that the board is mostly dedicated to turbo but I an interested in N/A performance for a long distance travel wagon (1989 Volvo 245 with IPD everything in suspension on it.

Tom D

I have an 11:1 B23 in my 242, and is just a very well built balanced engine that revs like a Honda now. Unfortunately, I'm in CA where smog is king so I didn't go crazy with anything else headwise. I had a K cam in it for a bit, and it really woke up. But, being in CA had to go back to the M cam to get the idle low enough to pass emmisions. Now my turbo motor is a B23 as well, but has undergone extensive porting, polishing, and combustion chamber work in order to lower the CR to 8.7:1. It should end up being fun. If I ever could get a '75 or another diesel 240 I'd put a GT6 cam in a worked head and keep the CR high, maybe go a bit higher like 11.5-12:1 and run E85. It would be a strong combo. If you're thinking about it, just do it. My 242 runs very strong for what it is, and more compression and air/fuel would be more fun. DO IT!

http://www.jonescams.com/2006catalog_001.htm

Guy is a genius.

Just me, give Ronald Abbott a call at Abbott's Superflow. He makes Mike Stark over at CFM look like a 3 year old with a Dremel.

Thank you for letting us (me) know. I have been doing some business with Matt Dickmeyer of Dick Dickmeyer automotive engineering in Indiana who also does custom cam development tailored to his final flow numbers. I am sending him a complete upper end from a 240. He may even come up with a header design to compliment the package. He has done some really nice work on a Mazda 1.6 that I am going to use to "spank some ricers" with. He developed a header specifically designed for this application to compliment the head and cam. You can google him at Dickmeyer automotive engineering.

Tom

If this is a car you are primarily using for long distance I wouldn't bother with much more than a cam swap and a good exhaust. You aren't going to gain that much power for the expense of porting the head, header or custom cam without raising the compression, requiring premium fuel. Just do the basics and drive it, enjoy the reliability, and spend the money on a ported head, custom cam and all that good crap on a car that will make better use of it.

No need to Google, I've seen the guy's work here in Connecticut, and heard nothing but good things. We are graced with Kiwi Engineering here, but to get an engine in to them is like pulling teeth. They always have a vintage Ferrari motor or some other wildly exotic motor on the stand. Good luck man.

badvlvo said:

If this is a car you are primarily using for long distance I wouldn't bother with much more than a cam swap and a good exhaust. You aren't going to gain that much power for the expense of porting the head, header or custom cam without raising the compression, requiring premium fuel. Just do the basics and drive it, enjoy the reliability, and spend the money on a ported head, custom cam and all that good crap on a car that will make better use of it.

Click to expand...

What cam would you define as a "good cam". I have a IPD V/X still in the box with the blue advance cam gear. Is that considered a good cam for solid long range driving satisfaction?

Tom

badvlvo said:

If this is a car you are primarily using for long distance I wouldn't bother with much more than a cam swap and a good exhaust. You aren't going to gain that much power for the expense of porting the head, header or custom cam without raising the compression, requiring premium fuel. Just do the basics and drive it, enjoy the reliability, and spend the money on a ported head, custom cam and all that good crap on a car that will make better use of it.

Click to expand...

That was my same worry. You're not always going to get gas that is high enough octane to support that high of compression.

NA? toss a stock 16v head with stock cams in it

cheaper, more gains, slightly more complicated but no more risky than a hot cam and shaved head imo

Rob (volvorules) ran a flat top b23 engine with a 530 head that was shaved 0.100". I think the combustion chambers were around 44cc, down from around 52cc (?) but that's going by memory and I haven't calculated if that's accurate. I think the compression ratio was around 12-12.5:1. Cam...I'm not sure the specs, some regrind with lash caps I think? Seemed to run OK on 93 oct pump gas, as he daily drove it for quite a while at one point.

My old '87 B230F with K cam (no cam timing adjustment), stock manifolds, original untouched head, minimal intake/exhaust, Megasquirt controlling fuel & ignition...made nearly identical numbers as a stock 940 Turbo with a 13c at ~5psi going through an AW71.



And again my engine compared to a similar engine in a '85 740 running LH2.2 and EZK with an IPD Turbo cam, I think a 2.25" exhaust, M46.



If I were going to modify a n/a engine now, I think I would go with a thinner head gasket, maybe skim the head a little to raise compression, and pick a good camshaft (open to discussion). Tuning is important too.

LH2.2 and whatever chrysler ignition system my '87 had wasn't very good for performance so the MS&S helped pick up some power and noticeable low end torque. LH2.4 or 3.1 might be better. The K cam felt weak on the bottom end with LH2.2 (went from M to VX3 to K during my n/a time), but with the MS&S giving control of fuel and ign. timing everywhere, I picked up huge gains in low/mid range without even adjusting cam timing. Surely there was more to be had, but the dyno sheet tells the story, flat torque, and it drove like that.

those were good times.

i miss that pos motor. was a blast to watch beat cars with "better" setups