Hey guys I'm new here thanks for having me. About 6 months ago my uncle had me put a crate motor in his 2000 cavalier 2.2 ls so I put a brand new Gn crate motor it runs excellent no problems with this one. My question lies with a 97 cavalier I got for free that had a blown engine. Well long story short I freshened up the 2k block and got a head from the junkyard for the 97 and put it in the car. Fires right up and runs great. Only problem is a massive amount of detonation. First guess is the head I got has been milled but would have to be milled a lot to cause that. I did read another thread on here that suggests the late block with an early head is close to 11:1 well even on 91 it pings like crazy. Any ideas? Do I need an early cam? Or a tune? Any help would be great. I've been searching for awhile and will continue to search but any help would be great.. would love to be able to drive my gas saver instead of the gas hog lol.
Thanks
Steve
Its the combination of head and block, the 98+ 2200s underwent some design changes. If i remember correctly the older head and newer bottom end make really high compression, which will cause detonation. Will probably need premium fuel and a good tune if you want to try and keep the combo together, and that might not be enough depending on how high the compression is. I have heard everywhere from 10.7-1 to 12.5-1 not sure the actual number.
Easiest way out is to either re do the short block with the 97 and older pistons to get the correct compression ratio or get a 98 or newer head. As this is a 97, the piston change route is probably more practical because of the computer. It's a pita but I'm thinking you may have already had the block bored by your comment about the block being "freshened up"? Gaskets, pistons, rings, labor. No problem.
dennis
I'd do the top feed conversion on the injectors and put bigger injectors in and tune it and have fun..... 11-12.1 compression sounds fun....
SLO CAV (autocrossing dude) wrote:I'd do the top feed conversion on the injectors and put bigger injectors in and tune it and have fun..... 11-12.1 compression sounds fun....
Supposedly according to the OHV gurus on the site you can't get rid of the knock on OHV engines with that high of compression. To me I think its all about the tuning, DOHC take it like a champ! But I suppose that bowl design, valve angle, and cam to valve relation could possibly change the dynamics of things. Otherwise I would recommend the same. It may be possible to get a thicker head gasket to lower the compression but then you might run into push rod geometry issues.
Yeah I bet you could tune it out. Not sure tho. I haven't messed with a 2.2 ohv since 04 so its been a while.
You guys are great thanks for the help... The rebuild was just refreshing an old block no honing or boreing or anything. Just new rings bearings etc... I'm going to look into new pistons for the correct year. And see what that will set me back. Now one thing I have noticed is with my scan tool once the knock sensor picked it up and retarded the timing it would be fine but that was about 5 degrees if I remember correctly. I'm thinking a tune will clean it up but ill check into the pistons too. Now one other thing I read was the timing notches might be advanced on the late cranks? Does anyone know anything about that?
Thanks again
Steve
They are, however since you have the same year block this does not pose an issue. This issue comes into play when you swap cranks and blocks throwing things off. its only reading the revolution of the crank based on top dead center which will read fine if the right crank is in the right block no matter the degree on the crank the notch is located because the hole in the block is also moved to correspond correctly.
Awesome that's great I didn't even think about that. So now its just a matter of new pistons, or a tune but it sounds like a tune may not take care of it. Might as well just order the correct pistons. Does anyone know the stock dish size? I'll search and see what I can find too.
Thanks again
Steve
I think bigger injectors and a tune could fix it. Those 97 side feed injectors$ were both tiny and crappy.
To be honest your most cost effective fix may be to have the heads of your current pistons milled down or reliefs of some sort put in. I know in the TC/Quads there is enough meat to do so and im willing to bet there is in the 2200 also.
stephen chandler wrote:Awesome that's great I didn't even think about that. So now its just a matter of new pistons, or a tune but it sounds like a tune may not take care of it. Might as well just order the correct pistons. Does anyone know the stock dish size? I'll search and see what I can find too.
Thanks again
Steve
Hi Steve,
My assumption here is that you are looking to just get this running well.
summitracing.com has pistons for about 20each, plus rings, gaskets and labor. you'll probably want to have it bored about .020 to .040 which runs about 25/cylinder around knoxville.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SLP-H637CP50MM/ these are .020 or .5 mm oversize. equivalent to stock pistons....not performance pistons "Recessed piston design is 0.200 inch deep x 2.920 inch diameter." per summit website $19 each plus shipping
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SLP-E-531K-50MM/ again these are .020 or .5 mm oversize, equivalent to stock rings...not high performance. $52 plus shipping
advance auto parts Part No. KS 2683 is the complete gasket set $124
Labor= priceless
dennis
