starting build

[Ben_Davis]

hi guys so finally after 2 years i am deciding to start my build. im gonna start buying parts slowly and start building her up. so heres what im gonna buy right now. lemme know if im makin a mistake.

crower valve springs and titanium retainers
pep stainless steel valves
felpro valve seals
sbi lock set
sbi valve guides

thats what im gonna start out with for now. lemme know if those are good components. i plan on leaving it as turbo ready as possible. also do you guys think its really worth porting and polishing the head? thats what im really debating right now. i was thinking of doing it my self to try and save a lil cash and try and finish her sooner. also what about a valve job? is that worth it?
Lemme know what you think. thanks

 

[LD25Delta9]

It looks like a good list so far. My advice would be to come up with a power goal and a budget limit, rather than the goal of, "I'm gonna build my head." In my opinion, and many others as well, you don't need to touch the head unless you want to rev higher than redline, or unless you're working with more than 400HP. Our heads flow great from the factory. I would look more into a bottom-end build and supporting mods if you want it to be turbo ready. Then look into tuning after that. After all of that, then I would look into head work. Also, don't worry so much about brand names, look for performance gain numbers. Hope this helps... Sorry if it didn't. Just my $0.02.

 

[Ben_Davis]

yea it hepled. the reason im building my head is because my t-belt snapped and bent a couple of valves. i am planning on building the bottum as well. i dont need the car right away so it can take me a while to build it up. alright so i wont get to crazy with the porting. thanks a bunch. very reashuring to hear that its a pretty good list.

 

[LD25Delta9]

Since you need to rebuild the head anyways, then it wouldn't be a bad idea. If that is the case, I would suggest doing it right from start and build it.

 

[Carter_95RS]

I agree, if you have to rebuild it build it once and call it a day

 

[Ben_Davis]

So you guys think I should port and polish?

 

[LD25Delta9]

If you have the time and you plan on doing it in the end anyways, yes. No sense in spending money on gaskets and seals twice or three times. Especially, if you have a built bottom end and a way to tune it all.

If you are having work done, contact all_motor_mike. He is a supporting vendor on Neons.org and has lots of pics on his pages there. If you are doing it your self, spend the same amount of money on spare heads and tools and practice before you fudge up the only head you have. Unless you have head PnP experience, it's really easy to mess up and can actually cause more harm than good. There's YouTube videos explaining it, but don't watch them thinking you'll be a master your first time around. It's something that having a background in fluid and aerodynamics is almost a must. Otherwise, you're making adjustments that, without a flowbench, are a shot in the dark. Even knowing what you're doing, you still really need a flowbench to see what adjustments make which improvements.

I'm not trying to discourage you by any means. I did my own PnP job, only to find out that smooth is not what you want....Now I have a stock head back on. This is just more gaskets and seals down the road now.....drift caught? Good luck either way mate and happy building.

 

[95weclipse]

well i ported the hell out of my exhaust and polished it smooth as #### you want to make it smooth on the exhaust side because you don't want the carbon sticking to any thing when its smooth it has nothing to stick to and you make it bigger because you want as much exhaust to come out as fast as possible so you make it bigger and take out some of the obstruction so the exhaust don't swirl around and "knock" the other gasses around you want it to flow through as easy as possible and i was told that you don't want to touch the intake side because you want the air/fuel mixture to bounce off of the rough edges to atomize more

but what i think is that because our cars are fuel injected how much more can the fuel atomize but i am not 100% shur on it exactly so i am waiting on touching my intake side for now

what you want to do on the exhaust side is go as big as possible and then gasket match the head and the manifold or if you are running a header then do this as well then take grind the valve guide out just to the aluminum of the head any way and then polish all of it start with an 80 grit flap wheel then go to a 120 grit and use wd40 and do it again with the 120 grit and it'll be like a baby's a$$

 

[Ben_Davis]

hi update on my build. well after waiting over a month on my valves and retainers to get here they didn't. I bought them from cimotorsports. and was very dissapointed. emailed them and they would just give me the run around. asked for my money back and got no response. so I had to go to my bank to get my money back. any other reliable sites to buy from?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Try Modern Performance (not to be confused with Modern Automotive Performance)... I try not to endorse non-supporting sponsors, but they're one of the few vendors that carry 420A engine parts and have good customer service:

Dodge SRT4 - Dodge Caliber SRT4 - Dodge Neon - Chevrolet Cobalt SS Performance Parts and Accesories

 

[1cleanreddsm]

Since your building your head I would advise mls mead head gasket if you have someone to mill your head, and some arp headstuds to hold em down. Though the mitsubishi composite gasket already holds around 300-400 hp, thats what I would do if I was working on the head.

 

[Locke]

The factory 420a head gasket is MLS.

 

[Ben_Davis]

Ok so I just ordered my wiseco pistons and eagle rods. Now im lookin at some crower valve springs at modern performance, but it says their for neon 2.0/2.4 95/05 . Those will work right? Info greatly appreciated

 

[Ben_Davis]

Anybody pls?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Please don't bump your threads... it's specifically against the rules and guidelines you agreed to before registering for an account here.

If MP listed Neon valve springs under their 95-99 NA Eclipse category, then there's a good chance they'll fit. Of course, you could always call MP or Crower to verify...

 

[Ben_Davis]

Sorry about that. Ok thanks

ok. So change in plans being how it is that gas prices are rising I'm gonna need my car sooner so I can park my gas hog expo. I still don't wanna cut corners but wanna build it a lil cheaper so I can finish quicker. Do u guys think ill be ok if I port and polish and just lap the valves instead of getting a valve job? Cause the place I'm sending my head to charges a lot for a valve job and I can lap the valves my self. Also will I need to balance my crank? And is it a good idea to hone my block?

 

[nemesis7]

yes i all sounds good but pot and polish your head and get stage 2 crower turbo grind cams.

 

[bullettdsm]

Do u guys think ill be ok if I port and polish and just lap the valves instead of getting a valve job? Cause the place I'm sending my head to charges a lot for a valve job and I can lap the valves my self. Also will I need to balance my crank? And is it a good idea to hone my block?

The valves themselves will have to be ground (unless you are buying new. I can't tell if you got them or not). Then you would have to lap them in to see if your contact area on the seat is still good. No need to balance the crank. I have balanced only one of mine throughout my many uses. You will be fine.

As for the block, what did you get for pistons? 20 over? If so then you will probably have to bore your block (unless for some reason your block was already bored before you broke it down). If you have stock sized pistons (which you shouldn't have bought until the machine shop checked and you found out if your block needed to be bored or not), you will need the machine shop to check the tolerances to see if the bores are too far out of spec (of course the same goes for if your block was already cut 20 before you broke it down. It will need to be checked).

Oh yeah; "u" is a letter in the alphabet, while "you" is a useful pronoun

MB

 

[Ben_Davis]

Yes I bought new pep valves. And I already made the mistake of buying my pistons. I bought them standard bore. no the engine has not been bored before. I'm gonna be pulling my block out this coming weekend. Do you guys think I should pull it out with the transaxle attached? Cause I heard it was easier that way. Thanks for the reply. Also about how much do our engines weigh with tranny? Cause I bought an engine leveler and it holds up to 3/4 of a ton. Will I be ok? Thanks

 

[Shake_Zulla]

Yes I bought new pep valves. And I already made the mistake of buying my pistons. I bought them standard bore. no the engine has not been bored before. I'm gonna be pulling my block out this coming weekend. Do you guys think I should pull it out with the transaxle attached? Cause I heard it was easier that way. Thanks for the reply. Also about how much do our engines weigh with tranny? Cause I bought an engine leveler and it holds up to 3/4 of a ton. Will I be ok? Thanks

1500 pounds?... yeah you should be ok... hell you could almost lift the whole car. Personally I pull the axles out and pull the block, head and trans as one.

 

[sikphok]

Nice list

 

[Ben_Davis]

Alright. Thanks. Yea I should have it out this weekend. I hope my cylinder walls aren't messed up. I don't want to have to ship my pistons back. Thanks for all the info very helpful. Will keep you guys posted how it went.

Also I had a question on the crower cams turbo grind. Can I use these with out a turbo or do I have to have a turbo installed. Reason being is cause I might be able to get a set for like 300. And I seen a how to video on eBay. I guess it shows you how to rebuild the 420a. Do you guys think its worth it?
Thanks

 

[Ben_Davis]

look at what the ups man dropped off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Shake_Zulla]

look at what the ups man dropped off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the UPS man. Infact I've seen him 3 times this week alone. His names Carl... I'm not ###. Nice Pistons and rods got me fingers crossed that the cyliders wont be to mauled up... Straight men cross fingers too right? God I need help.

 

[Ben_Davis]

. well I was feeling a bit motivated last night and I got the engine out. It was way easier then i thought. Now to mount it on my stand and take the rest apart.