Heres my dilema I have the 2200 now and its a brand new engine. pretty much (broken in of coarse). eagle rods, wiseco piston, t3 super 60, the works... I know it will never get as much hp as a worked Eco. My question is what to do stay with the 2200 and just do as much to it as possible or buy an eco, build it, then swap it?
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eco if you have the time and money to either do a swap or sell your car and buy an 03-05
2200 if you are one of those people that has a point to prove. (mind you it has been done)
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when you beat someone in a civic people wine and make excuses
when you beat someone in a cavalier they pull over and check under thier hoods
keep in mind...if you do it yourself an eco swap shouldnt take more than 1k. if you're not rich, go for the swap! its mad easy for 2000+ 2200's and you'll have so much more potential
2002 Cavalier 2200----- Buffalo, NY
Well, how much power do you want? everybody is all up about the eco "having more potential" but all I've seen over the last month are a bunch of cracked pistons and snapped rods.... Ultimately, yes, an eco with forged internals is going to be able to take more of a beating than an ohv with equal modification. But that point doesn't come until well above 250 hp, which few rarely even get that high, much less higher. As it stands now, your OHV should be capable of withstanding plenty of power, and the few weak links it may still have are still cheaper than a forged-internalled eco swap would be.
You've already got a built motor.... so you're saying you're going to spend another $1000 or more into an eco swap, then another $1000 or so on top of that to do forged internals, then how much more to completely redo your turbo system to work with the eco? For that $2-5K, you could easily button up the OHV to bulletproof status, and have enough left over to buy coilovers, drag wheels, and slicks, and probably HPT or a standalone.
It all comes down to what you already have and how fast you want to go. If you want 11's in the 1/4 all you need is between 300-350 hp, which your current setup (well, you'd need a bigger turbo) is already very close to being able to handle. All you really need is headwork, valvesprings, lifters, and a cam, which isn't much at all considering how cheap those items are for the OHV if you know where to look (start looking up old OHV threads its all been covered in great detail).
My point is that with where you are know, unless you want to go significantly faster than say, high 11's in the 1/4, it would be a total wast of money for you to ditch the OHV and go eco, because you'd have to spend all that money over again on the eco-equivalent of your parts. Now if for some reason you want 600 hp or something crazy, sure, go eco, and sell me your ohv lol.
Are you having problems with your current setup? Because if you're not having repeated unexplained failures you're only a more boost and/or a bigger turbo away from much more power.
All the eco guys will come out and say go eco, but in all reality, why would you do that when your bottom end is already good for up to about 400 hp or maybe more? A stock eco starts breaking things at the 250-300 range. Just button up what you have an improve on it, thats my take. If you really want an eco for some reason, who am I to stand in your way? But from where i'm standing, you're putting an awful lot of work and a motor with much more potential than its given credit for down the drain to start over and spend more money than perfecting the current setup would take.
Arrival Blue 04 LS Sport
Eco
Turbo
Megasquirt
'Nuff said
