Questions about engine tuning and an engine swap! (vehicle, fuel, best)

[BORGUSX]

1.What resources should I go check out in order to learn on how to do it?

2.What car model is there would make you want to modify its engine?

3.I guess engine tuning and an engine swap is more like a hobby than anything else.

[scottv]

Miata
240SX
Civic

These will be your cheapest option to modify and are very popular. There are many car forums dealing with messing around with these cars.

[Mac_Muz]

I am not sure what the questions mean....

The order of a tune up is quickly:
compression, spark and fuel. This is the entire order.

ALL internal gasoline buring combustion engines must have compression or nothing else matters.

Next is spark, where no matter how much fuel there is, or isn't, nothing else will matter.

Last is fuel, which means enough in all ranges, and no vacuum leaks.

Modding engines depends entirely on what the mod is for.

This can mean changing crank shafts, connecting rods, and pistons, plus the cam shafts, intakes and exhaust set ups, but for a specific reason as a mud crawler isn't a good street machine.

Large American V 8's lend to many kinds of changes, where smaller foreign engines have less store bought options.

Then there is no replacement for displacement.

[TheViking85]

Originally Posted by Mac_Muz

Then there is no replacement for displacement.

Well 4/5 vales per cylinder and good materials is a start.

They get a fairly reliable 500whp out of the good old RB26DETT

And BMWs swan song straight six, 3.2L pushed a healthy 342hp without a turbo.

I'd say technology is a good replacement.


As for tuning cars, choose a vehicle first, once you got it, you can be damn sure there's an enthusiast forum for it somewhere.

BMW's, Nissans, Subarus, Mitsu Evos, Mercs etc are all fairly easy to get prower from, though Beemers and Scoobs can get pricey real fast.

[las vegas drunk]

Originally Posted by Mac_Muz

I

Then there is no replacement for displacement.

As far as inefficiency, I will agree with this statement.

[GTOlover]

I would love to buy a 91-93 mustang LX notchback and ditch the 5.0 EFI get a 351 windsor stroked out to 408 cubes since the car is so light that would be a raocket throw in some full length sub frame connectors so it does not twist the the body with thr gobs of torque then I would use it to drag on the friday night street legals it would save abuse on my other car and since it would be my weekend warrior car I would run a massive shot of nitrous.
http://static.racingjunk.com/63/ui/5/31/14616156-073-1992-Ford-Mustang-lx-notchback-coupe.jpg (broken link)

[Mac_Muz]

There is always the exception to the rule, and it will be a odd ball and very pricey.

One old example might be the Datsun 1,600 cc engine which stock might have been around 75 hp. Hot rooded that engine block, which was all about left of the oem engine could crank out 400 ponies, but that wasn't typical, and still isn't for any 95 cu in engine today.

The OP still confues me as to what he wanted to know, and so I am being as basic as i can be.

I may be 'just' a little out of date, but the laws that make engines like these go are the same.

In get a kick out of these coil per plug cars because it is said to be the newest idea on the block. Well this is a modified version of Ford Model T, not a new idea.

You guys need to understand that once long ago i was a pro tech, but I got sick of it. After that i did 'custom' work and did a lot of work on things I never saw before and usually were as old or older than I am.

Don't much care what it is, so long as there is limited info, I can make it go.

The best way for me to know if I can fix a thing, is to let me get my grubby mitts on it. back in the day I knew giys that knew every different feature on air cooled VW cars, but couldn't fix them. I was the other way around not really carring what was on the car, not counting bumperett's or grill slots, I just fixed them.

Back before 85' makers were selling their experiments, and this practice continues to this day. About now I am guessing Toyauto isn't so happy with a few of their experiments. I'd have to say they hired some CAD engiineers with no hands on nuthin big shots..

And to me there isn't a car made worth over 10g's, a house used to be 30'gs, and this is a nightmare of useless value we suffer today and for what? The brickline was a 10g's car in the mid 70's. and it could have been a great car, the problem was it didn't rust.. Toyauto fixed that I guess.

[Nativechief]

Yo . Dont forget you can not change the emission system in any way, If you swap engines the replacement engine must operate like the old one so it DOES NOT TURN THE CEL ON. ...............ITS THE LAW

[miu]

Start with an older car, no younger than 1995. 1992-95 cars are run by OBD1 computers and for smog inspections, they aren't hooked up the the inspection scanner. OBD1 cars only have to pass the exhaust sniffer test (plus the usual safety checks). Otherwise, it's illegal to swap an engine into your car can't be older than your car.

If this is your first car project, start with a Civic or other car that has a good car enthusiast following. There will be plenty of online technical support through message boards and performance parts will be plentiful. If you go with used performance parts, they are much cheaper.

If you stick with a simple engine swap and leave it be, you don't need to tune the car. You just have to move the ECU for that new engine into your car. But if you further modify your swapped engine with a turbo, you will need to have the car tuned properly. The ECU will need to have a new computer program downloaded into it to accommodate the proper air/fuel inputs and such. Otherwise, you will kill your new engine if the adjustments aren't made. Get a proper tune by a professional. Don't buy some performance chip off of eBay. No two cars respond exactly the same to performance mods in terms of what they need for a tuning reprogram.

I know this because my boyfriend works at a performance garage with a dynometer. He is a professional tuner. I've also seen many people take shortcuts with their performance mods and ruin their engines and then have to start from scratch again.

[Mr.Cat]

GDB Imprezza finely tuned to 600HP. No body kits, the perfect sleeper.