Hey! I have been reading here and have learned a lot from this site. Thanks for that. I'm just starting to play with these motors. In the past I have always worked on SBC's, but I bought my wife an 02 z-24 and love the thing. Anyways I'm into dirt racing. I build the odd motor for some drivers and was asked to build a 2.2 for a young driver that was in a 4 cyl class thats dominated by rice eaters. This was a challenge for me since I only own and work on GM products and am new to the smaller stuff. To make this message short I took his block, cleaned it up, polished the crank, cleaned up the cylinders, added a good crosshatch, Changes the piston to new ones from a 98, (more compression) touched the heads up and bolted it together. The kids on a budget and I done the work for free with him buying the parts. I wanted to do more.

Like I said this class is dominated by rice eaters and very few chevy's run up front. Until now. This kid can drive. The car works great. He runs up front now and is a top 3 car. The few that beat him are getting off the corners faster. He says he hits the rev limiter getting in and looks good going in. He says it the motor that got him there, but I think it has to do with him making the chassis better as well. I need to make him more torque to be able to pass a Honda or two. Other than the pistons, this thing is stock. Teck at this track is a joke when it comes to this class. Anyone have a few tricks that you might want to share ? I'm thinking about building a better head and a mild cam for starters, but that would be cheating. Any ideas would be great. Help me show a chevy can win in this class.

Thanks!

Since you're familiar with Chevy's V-8s, and you've had this thing apart once already, you know how the head's design is very similar to the BBC head. If you know how to treat one of those, you'll know how to treat this head. Also, the cam's lobe design is the same as use for the hydra-roller SBC, and any lobe profile available (Within reason) can be ground onto one of the factory cams as there is no blanks really available for this engine. The only other advice is to search here under the parameters of 2.2L, 2200 or LN2. Anything from guys like MadJack, Notec & Slowolej will be your best bet as what to do.


Go beyond the "bolt-on".

Thanks for the input Nickelin. I found it was more like working on the old inline 6 cyl 230,250,292's. Way back we raced them as well. Anyways the motor is in the car and I understand that doing some head massaging and a custom re-grind would have been good at the time I put it together. I'm not saying we can't pull it out and do more, but anything with the motor in the car to get a bit more would be a help. I'm working on an intake and was thinking about a throttle body change. Changing to what I'm not sure, but I'm learning and still reading. I have another head that I'm looking at now and adding a larger intake valve ( 0.30 ) larger. Pocket porting would not be that hard, but I might just smooth out the ports rather than do too much, and end up with less or no gains. I'm also thinking about adding 1.6 rockers, but would have felt better doing it with the motor out and being able to check valve to piston clearance.


Like I said, I'm still learning.

I'm not familiar with dirt racing rules. What's allowed? I'll do anything I can to help someone beat a Honda.


2010 Honda Fit LX

Crane's Narrow-body Gold rockers will work with the stock cam just fine, but since you swapped-in 2200 pistons I don't blame you for being concerned. As for fueling needs, what year is this car? If it's a '92 you can swap on the MPI found on '92-up W-cars, '93-up J-cars & '94-'97 S-truck LN2s, and have the TB port enlarged. You will need the corresponding OBD-I ECM to work it & still look stock to all the techs, but it should pass. Like I've said before: Seems most techs don't know much about anything outside of what's common in sprints & late-models. As long as it don't look to the techs like it came from NASA or an Indy-car, they probably won't notice. As for smoothing the intake port fully: Don't! The floor best be left rough as to induce turbulence to promote fuel/air mixing & keep the fuel in suspension with the incoming air. Plus work on the pockets & bowl area alone help flow greatly. Also (And this is something most don't think of when the option of using a header is available), try having the exhaust manifold extrude-honed & ceramic-coated on the inside, along with maybe the outside as well. There is a company that can put a coating on it that's black in color (Don't ask me which one as I can't remember!) so the techs won't get suspicious. But then again, isn't that the idea when building for competition? (Thank you, Smokey Yunick!)


Go beyond the "bolt-on".

They might look under the cover. I was thinking stamped 1.6 rockers, even though I need to change studs. At first glance they look stock.

So, it's a 94 so I'm told. Look at the bone yard for an S-10 TB and a MPI and use the OBD1 ECM from that truck ? No wiring ? Plugs right up the same ?

I like the NASA thing !

What about the EGR ? I know I'm old school and new to this motor, but what about blocking the EGR tube ?

The young fellow that owns this car blocked off the vac line to the fuel regulator. My way of thinking is that this is wrong. Would it not give more fuel under load when vac is high ? Like off the turns when it's needed.

No headers allowed. Any better manifolds I could try ?

Thanks for helping me out. Hey, I might just learn a thing or two.

If it's a '94 it should already have the MPI. And no, the truck ECM won't bolt-up the same as the pin locations on the Cavy's aren't the same as the truck's. Plus, for some goofy reason the truck's management system doesn't include a knock sensor prior to '96, which by then was switched to the OBD-II system. I know because I've looked into it on my LN2-powered S-dime & it drove me crazy that GM would put one on this engine in all it's other apps with the MPI prior to '96 but not the trucks. The ECM from a W-car (Cutlass Ciera, Olds Achieva, FWD Buick Century sedan & all other models based on that platform) might work with the J-car's MPI wiring, but don't quote me on that as I never did a close comparison of the two. Getting a pair of service manuals (One for each car) and comparing them side-by-side would be the best bet before delving into getting the hard parts.

Blocking the EGR with the factory chip unchanged to eliminate the EGR solenoid control would be a bad thing, as the ECM will sense the lack of vacuum change when it trys to activate it & throw a code as it switches on the "Service Engine Soon" light and try to compensate for the EGR inactivity in the areas of fuel metering & spark timing (Been there, done that). You could try fabbing-up a EGR restrictor to place between the valve & the EGR nozzle in the intake plenum, or plate that does the same that mounts between the EGR valve & it's mounting surface, that will allow only a 5-15 total dilution of the intake charge without causing the light to go on. This mod is very popular with the guys on the s10planet.com board that have engines with EGR, and there's an "sticky" article in the forums there that discusses the function & flaw to the design is the system at length & how it should work along with what to try to make it do so.

There are a few adjustable fuel pressure regulators on the market that are a bolt-on of this app, and you can get at least one through Summit.

I figured there may not be headers allowed, hence the extrude-hone & black-colored ceramic coating suggestion. And sorry, there are no better manifolds for this app as far as I can tell.

You could also try ceramic-coating the pistons & combustion chambers (A real hot idea with many serious racers) to help contain the heat in the cylinders and running non-aquious propyline-glycol coolant (Available from Evan's at evansnpg.com, if I remember the web address properly) which will help remove whatever heat does get through better than regular store-bought coolant (green or orange) or water with Water-wetter added. Those combined will help get the engine's operating temperature way down & help it to produce more power.

This is about all I can think of try to help, so from here out it's up to you. Good luck & remember: They don't inspect for what they don't suspect or detect.
(God speed, Smokey.)



Go beyond the "bolt-on".

Thanks again Nickelin. Do you think it was the right thing blocking off the fuel regulator vac line ?

Re-connect the FPR vacuum line. It controls the power-shot of fuel, when you mash the accelerator. The vacuum drops and the pressure spikes, giving a bust of fuel as the injectors fire.

That was my thought MadJack. I have no problem with trying things, but most of the drivers telling him what he should do are running behind him.

If they're running behind him, and he's listening to what they say to do, I think that's a pretty clear indication of how sharp a cutter he is. That boy needs a mentor, fast!


Go beyond the "bolt-on".

Well thanks for the input guys. I will keep you up to date if we make any changes that work in the future. As for this kid, well, he runs a chevy and he can drive. Put those two things to together and he might just beat a rice eater or two. As I said before, I never charged him a dime to build his motor. All I wanted him to do was run up front. He is doing that. Now he just needs to get a checker and he is close.

Thanks again.