I'm new to rebuilding engines for performance and these forums. I got a few questions. I have a '95 cavy with the 2.2L, kinda sucks, I don't want to drop in a 2.4L, I'd rather just work on this, and get the horsepower up but run it N/A. I've got about a grand to spend, give or take. I've already got an SRI on order. What else can I do to get some hp, and how much would each of these cost? I've got a buddy who's an apprentise mechanic and has all the tools and a lift, so we can do the labour ourselves. I'm thinking pistons, rods, and camshaft for now. I've looked into pistons, but I dont know about compression ratio, I see people talking about high-comp pistons, but then some people are trying to lower their compression as well. Also, would bigger injectors and porting the throttle body add hp?

If you've got a grand to spend, and you want the most bang for your buck, I'd do a V6. You could easily do it for that money if you shop your parts right (motor can be had for $400-600, get as many parts with it as possible), and you would notice a huge difference. SHOoff pulled 14's in his without even pushing it (babied the tranny). That was with a stock 3400 with some rough tuning.

Quiklilcav wrote:If you've got a grand to spend, and you want the most bang for your buck, I'd do a V6. You could easily do it for that money if you shop your parts right (motor can be had for $400-600, get as many parts with it as possible), and you would notice a huge difference. SHOoff pulled 14's in his without even pushing it (babied the tranny). That was with a stock 3400 with some rough tuning.

I think this may be the first time I'm going to agree with a swap being the best option. You can't do rods/pistons/cam for less than $1000. Sure, you could by the parts for less than that, but the machining costs would break your budget. If you want to try the 2.2L, skip the rods and pistons. Go with a cam regrind, a thinner Cometic headgasket (or a .025" decked block if you're pulling the motor out to change the cam), a decked and ported head, LT1 lifter spring conversion, some aftermarket pushrods, and a Melling M98 oil pump. That's only about $500 if you port the head yourself, and you'll have mad ECOtec power yo! Spend the rest on a tune, a complete Felpro gasket set, pizza, and beer. I'm not familiar with the OBD1 ECUs, but you're going to find the most power in the tuning at that point.

Oh yeah, generally people lower compression for boost, raise for NA. I'm one of the weird ones that has raised for boost every time though.




fortune cookie say: better a delay than a disaster

How much work is it to drop in a 3400?

There are no options for larger injectors on the 95-97 2.2
You'd have to convert to top feed injector system.

Hey XANADU, forget about the 2.2L, it is just way too weak of a powerplant. In my opinion, i would just buy an ECOTEC 2.2L from a Junk yard or something, or even eBay. I got my Ecotec 2.2L w tranny for 300 bucks form a smashed (in the rear) 04 cavy LS, and with this engine you would have no need for mods in the engine bay.




**fresh**

Xanadu wrote:I'm new to rebuilding engines for performance and these forums. I got a few questions. I have a '95 cavy with the 2.2L, kinda sucks, I don't want to drop in a 2.4L, I'd rather just work on this, and get the horsepower up but run it N/A. I've got about a grand to spend, give or take. I've already got an SRI on order. What else can I do to get some hp, and how much would each of these cost? I've got a buddy who's an apprentise mechanic and has all the tools and a lift, so we can do the labour ourselves. I'm thinking pistons, rods, and camshaft for now. I've looked into pistons, but I dont know about compression ratio, I see people talking about high-comp pistons, but then some people are trying to lower their compression as well. Also, would bigger injectors and porting the throttle body add hp?

Forgot to mention, here, we talked about this before...

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=2&i=393806&t=393806




**fresh**

Xanado, don't be misled by uninformed people, read this You'll see Josh (OHV Notec) is telling the truth.

Xanadu wrote:How much work is it to drop in a 3400?

It's not a heck of a lot more work than doing a DOHC swap, or pulling your 2.2 and building it. A few things have to be fabricated; lower torque arm mount, downpipe, and depending on which upper engine mount you go with, you need to either fab a mounting plate, modify the frame rail bracket, or remove the frame rail bracket all together. The rest is just wiring and plumbing. It took me about 30 hours all-in-all to do my swap, but I also completely ripped apart 3 wiring harnesses and custom made my own. If you want some short reading to see how it can be done, check out Kardain's threads in the photo's & media forum. There are two "3400 swap begins" (IIRC) and "3400 part 2". Also check out my thread in the 3rd gen forum "some progress on the V6 swap". Since it's a 95, you could go with the setup I used. I have a 95 and I chose to use 95 F-body electronics, but you can also use 95 N-body electronics. I chose F-body ECM and wiring harness because it was already set up for the 5 speed. However, there were some things I hadn't considered that took extra time in the wiring (mainly that since it came from a RWD car, all the wiring was routed different, so I had to move everything, which meant lengthening many wires). I found out afterward that the N-body wiring harness would have worked with the ECM. If I did it again, I might use the 96 N-body electronics, because I have been told that the 95 F-body electronics won't work with DHP or HPT tuning software. The computer works great for a stock engine, and will probably work fine with some basic mods. If/when I get into building something more, I'll have to change my electronics.

As far as the engine goes, it will bolt right up to your 2.2 tranny, using the same flywheel/clutch, or flexplate/torque converter as the 2.2 uses.