rambozotheclown

I have a '97 Eclipse RS with the 420A 2.0L non-turbo coming up on 120K miles, with the leaky head gasket that those motors suffered from. I figured while I'm doing the timing belt and head gasket, I'd pull the pan off and freshen up the block and rings.. I'm tossing around ideas to build the motor up, and keep it all motor (no turbo, NOS, etc.) Is it possible to get up to about 175-200hp at the wheel with just motor, and still keep my excellent fuel mileage? Or at least keep it close.. I get 45mpg at 80, and average 32mpg. I will also be getting the exhaust from a '95 GS-T soon, figured that'd help the flow and keep the nice tone (hate that coffee can crap!) I don't have cold-air intake, header, or anything so far.. Would porting the head do any good? Are cams available? Are bigger throttle bodies available?
Any advice? Thanks!

Also, I'd like to do a suspension upgrade when I get more money. It's gotta be streetable (the streets here SUCK) but still make me stick to the ground, especially at autocross. I don't want a big drop, but enough to make my 17's fill the wheel well. The motor is my first priority, but I might as well start thinking about all of it now.

This is my everyday car, and I put lots of miles on it. I want a nice, smooth ride. I know some of you are like "Why so little power? Get MORE!" but if you look to the left, you'll see that I also have a Mustang and a 442.. Those are my weekend toys! Except for autocross- I'm more comfy in the Eclipse than the Mustang, and the 442... Well, it doesn't autox very well..

eldanoloco

Well, no turbo, no nitrous huh? I don't know to much about 420A's so my approach is kind of generic. Obviously CAI, header, exhaust. Consider a mild set of cams and some sort of fuel managment, maybe a SAFC and doesn't Howell Automotive have some sort of ECU upgrade?

If you pull the engine, you up the compression ratio with pistons, or an alternative is decking the head to service limits which will buy you a little bit of up compression. Get a metal or copper head gasket as those are usually thinner. And that means upped compression. You can deck the block to for more compression too.

But remember, if you reuse pistons your running more compression on 120K units. Even if you get new stock units, you still have cast pistons. I don't think you could raise compression a great deal by just decking block/head and using a thinner gasket, but I have never personally seen the results.

EVOTEXAS

iTrader: (12)

The streets in San Antonio suck? Hahaha. No no no. Try Dallas. I love going home to San Antonio just to drive on the wonderful streets down there. Even the highways in Dallas are crap. I hate the roads here.

dsmshane

iTrader: (4)

Crane makes cams for the 420a i think. Also hahn racecraft works on the 420a motors. Check them out.

rambozotheclown

i never said they were the worst.. hehe but yeah, i hate dallas too! it's still better than mexico, i guess...