engines ready! how do i make it run?

[Gullett0003]

Hey guys. Ive got a huge headache on my hands. I used to own a 95 gs back in like '02 so im not unfamiliar with these cars but i dont know a whole lot. esp when it comes to engine internals and tuning. This is kind of an oddball question because of my application. I bought a '98 eclipse dirt track "hornet" class car. Its my first race car. When i bought the car it had a 2.0 DOHC in it that had a thrown a rod through the block. The good thing (or atleast i thought) was that it came with another 2.0 DOHC spare engine. The seller did not know any specs or mods on this spare engine so i took it to my shop to have to gone through before throwing it in. Well, the shop called me and it turns out it is highly modded internally. both of these engines had ported and polished heads with race cams. So, we took both the heads and combined them into one with the best parts. Crower stage2 race cams, adjustable cam gears, aftermarket valves (titanium i think the shop said), rollers, and springs. The shop called the pistons "high compression dome" pistons. it has a venom fuel rail and the mech said he thinks the injectors are aftermarket as well. the throttle body is ported. it has lightweight gears all over, and aftermarket header. The car has a module under the dash that say "jet" and lights up when the ignition is on. Those are all the mods that i know of...Now with that being said technically "hornet" class cars are supposed to be bone stock. Which is a rule that i hear is broken more often than not, so long as the car appears somewhat stock. Bolt-ons are overlooked...i just picked the engine up from the shop. the mechanic said its ready to roll and is set to top dead center. My question is what exactly to i need to run this engine? Ive heard megasquirt but seems to me it would stick out like a sore thumb under the hood and be a dead giveaway of internal mods. Also im not trying to dump a ton more money into this car. It cost me a grand to have the head work and everything else to get the engine ready. I dont need to get the absolute most out of this engine i just need it to run reliably under heavy, heavy stress. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this? The guy at the shop said a stock ECU would burn up the pistons? The car came with about 5 ecus, one of them has a sticky note on it saying what the rev limiter is set at, does this mean i can roughly tune the stock ecu? Im just so far over my head, to make it even worse i dont have any reliable sources in my area. Ive searched high and low. I know this is a really long post, but thank you for taking the time to read it. Any input would be appreciated. If you need any more information than i listed, let me know and i will try to get it to you. Thanks so much!

 

[chasedardis]

First things first find out what compression ratio your at.

 

[Gullett0003]

so i need to drop this engine in, get it all hooked up, and test the compression...ill work on that. it may be a while till i can get it in there but ill check back asap with the compression ratio. thanks.

 

[Shake_Zulla]

I'm not much for cheating on the track... That being said the ECU is a major problem with robing power, you can run MS with your stock ecu and just have it control fuel and timing. If you did a good wire tuck and splice job no one would even notice. Then a wideband (you would probably need to hide that somewhere.)

 

[chasedardis]

Im talking about your blocks static compression ratio is it stock or higher because you said the block was built. Im not sure what a 420a uses for stock ratio but if its higher then u need to tune it.

 

[bullettdsm]

It sounds like you have some forged pistons in there (those would probably not pass a tear down inspection - as well as Eagle rods). Too bad the shop didn't pull the numbers off the pistons so the pistons could be identified. They could simply be 10.5 comp (a normal off the shelf compression adder) or they could be higher. Depending on how much higher and the ECU choice, you could safely run this.....or not

First the cams; the Crower 2's are run on daily's with no problem. Probably the most common cam used on our cars. For circle track choice, this is a debateable cam. It may be counter-productive to use this cam with the rpm range that you will run. I have a circle tracker Neon friend (who does quite well) that chose not to use the Crower 2's numbers (when doing something like this, "people" generally use stock cams and have them reground - we use Delta as our supplier - so that if there is a tear down inspection, "people" won't get caught). In fact our discussion of cam choice numbers was using the Crower 1's, the 2's were quickly rejected as a choice ("people" also don't take the chance of using adjustable cam gears. They are way too easy to get caught with. What "people" do is "reset" the stock gears, so should there be an esoteric inspection, the engine would generally pass - even in a tear down, the gears would generally pass).

Now as for the port work; real good possibility that you hurt yourself with the port work done. I say this because generally people port for size, not velocity. Because of the rpm's that you are probably going to run, you would have wanted a very light port job. In addition, heavy port work leaves you open to the possibility of getting caught.

Piston choice, we've talked about. It will depend on the comp level and the ECU choice. The most common choice for a "tunable" ecu is Megasquirt. As Shake says, you can use it as a piggy back, but you need to hide it pretty well. Not just the wires and sensors, but the box as well.

As for the multiple ECU's you have; well our ECU's generally can't be touched. Howell does make one called the AFX/ECU and it is a very good "bolt-on" choice. You can probably identify your ECU's with the numbers on the boxes.

Funny thing about the word "jet". There was a company a while back that suposedly burned in better numbers to your stock ECU. This is a very debatable subject. I never tested these out myself and I'm EXTREMELY skeptically that they did anything other than con people (the code set-up for our ECU's are pretty complicated. Right now there are people trying to crack the code on Neons - but they have been trying for years - "word on the street" is that Gary Howell has a guy from Chrysler come in and do his ECU's), but the claim is out there.

Obviously, any lighter valve train will help out, so that's a good thing.

So to re-cap; you need to find out what comp you got in there and what ECU's you have. You should probably dump the Crower 2's for your application, but that will depend on your rpm choice. AND if you are going to "bend" the rules (as many, many do. Its more common than not), hide it well.

You know, as I'm thinking about it, your best bet is to just send me everything and I'll send you a new rebuilt stocker. That way you'll know just what you have

MB