hotrod 4cyl possible?

has anyone rebuilt their 4cyl with better rods, pistons, a good balance job, cam, and gotten the head done? just thinking it would be cool to go from 72hp to 112hp. plus think how much people would freak when your keeping up with their 6cyl.

 

If your talking about the L or F head, it will take more than that to get 112. These are long stroke motors and they don't like high RPMs.

 

The crank and rods are already forged steel, so no need for an upgrade there. As above, the stroke is very long already, perhaps the most undersquare of any widely produced engine. Lots of torque but not much power.

If you were serious about it, you might consider turbo/super charging, which would probably take advantage of the engines good attributes (heavy block, strong crank & rods) and avoid its weaknesses (poor breathing, low RPMs). Might take a lot of effort though, and would certainly cost more than the obvious alternatives.

 

A friend of mine had his f-head professionally redone at a speed shop several years ago. Balanced,blueprinted blah,blah,blah. They put it on the dyno for fun and he got a whopping 92 documented HP. Ran like a champ, but without some serious investment I doubt you'll get much more than that.

 

Look up Clifford Performance. I forget where they are. I spoke to them about a year ago because the po put a header on mine and I needed a exhaust manifold gasket. They claim high HP figures can be made from the F134. Sorry I don't have any phone #'s.

 

You can make anything fast, but fast costs money. I imagine if you look around long and hard enough you can find hi-perf parts for the 134. Ultrasound the cylinder walls and bore the thing out as big as you possibly can. I know Ross Pistons will build custom parts for you as well as Delta camshaft. Something in the high 260's for advertised duration would probably work well since there's no way you could ever touch 8000rpm and it would really wake up the midrange. I'd increase the lift too, but I can't really say by how much without measuring lots of stuff. Have the entire bottom end balanced and weight matched. I'd also recommend a LOT of head work. Get out the books and find bigger valves from some other engine that can be made to fit in yours. Find stiffer valve springs too, the stockers won't be up to any kind of performance. Shave it, port, and polish too. Unfortunately the exhaust valves are in the block, so not too much can be done there, but the block can probably be ported to help the exhaust flow. You'd probably be best off fabbing a sheetmetal intake and putting something like a Holley 3778 or maybe a 4412 on it. A header and low restriction exhaust are no brainers. Don't forget to upgrade the ignition either. Electronic is the best way to go, but I don't know if one is made for the 4. Regardless, a high voltage coil and MSD box would be good upgrades. If I had to guess, you could probably bring her in for under $5000, probably lots cheaper if you did a lot of the work yourself. If you have the funds, go for it. I'd love to see it done

 

Or you could always make a plate and put a 50 shot of nitrous on it. Then, run her till she blows.

 

That’s not a bad idea. Generally speak’n, long stroke motors respond very well to a turbo, since they do a superior job of cylinder filling early in the rev range when compared to a more over square motor.
Though, if you’re considering this it’s my opinion that I wouldn’t consider turbo’n anything without an intercooler, air to air heat exchanger, and to help control detonation you’ll want to keep boost levels low. Like 5-7 psi.

 

Nitrous has a bad rep. Set up properly it’s not that dangerous.
Typically this means jet’n the gas side rich, since it’s much cheaper to replace gas fouled spark plugs than let’n it detonate and blow a hole in the piston crown.

 

Not really something I would do on a F134. You do have to run it rich and you are constantly replacing plugs. I run around with a bunch of drag racers who run it and once you get used to where to set the mixture, it isn't much trouble. You have to deal with the occasional frozed solenoid and also completely blowing the carburator apart from time to time. I would just build the F134 pretty much stock and not worry too much about it being a hot rod.

 

Well, yea. There’s always that too. R)
Particularly since the service life of any motor will decrease in direct proportion to how much it’s been fiddled with.

 

If this were a big-bucks project, couldn't you buy custom pistons, lower the compression, and raise the boost?

 

Sure, and you’d get more peak power that way also but you’d be sacrificing some low end torque in favor of more mixture in the cylinder when the turbo spools up.
Keep’n the compression ratio closer to stock will help maintain low end power.
Course, this is all generally speak’n. Specific applications may be a little different.

 

IF $$$$ was no object, why not 'accquire' an dual overhead cam head? can still find them for Ford model T's and A's.

 

I read somewhere you can put a Dauntless 6 cyl carb on it for some decent gains. I don't know it for a fact, just something that I picked up somewhere. You guys probably know more than I do

 

If you really want a Hotrod 4 cyl., try this. Mercruiser 181 cubic inch 4 (Chevy 4), balance it, new cam, headers and electronic ignition and four barrell carb or fuel injection, or TBI. This engine has five main bearings on the crank and will buzz 8-10000 RPM. This will also give the V8 guys a run for there money.

 

how about a wet shot of NOS where you shoot gasoline in with the gas? Fairly common practice in the tuner world. Personally though NOS would be a bad idea in an F-head since you should not spray till you are above about 2,500 RPMs and at that point the motor is getting towards its redline so you would not have that long of a shot.
To me a supercharger or turbo with a water to air intercooler would be the best idea.

 

True about the NOS and I don't think I would spend the $$ to try to set it up for turbo. You still have to be turning enough rpms to spool the turbo though so I doubt I would go that route either. Oh well, just swap in a V8 like everyone else does and you are ready for the drag strip.

 

Jeez guys... Not to be critical but Hot rodding a old jeep? You gonna do a lot of suspension work too so you don't end up doing cartwheels down the road somewhere? All I can say is I wouldn't take my 61 anywhere over 60mph without feeling a little iffy!

I wouldn't mind having more low end power though and it's an interesting post!

 

Good point! Even in my TJ, around 100mph gets scary so I try to keep it under 70 at most. What about ways to get more torque out of a F134?