Dirtkatt

Ok here's the scoop. my kid is running in a 'Charger Class'. (the track promoter waivered him to run in a 13 to 18 year old 4 cylinder charger class.) a 6 year veteran of dirt track karting, he has won a ton, and is very, very savvy when it comes to the handling of a racing vehicle. ( Loves the car, but 'It isn't as fast as my kart, and it handles like 'chit", and those are his exact words) Myself, i'm a 30 year racer, but in upper classes. (we built a 477hp 2bbl cleveland in 2000 to be 'different', and spun it at 8400+ all year long, so I'm pretty slick under the hood and on the suspension. Now. with that said, here's my dilemma:

the rules originally stated "90 and older, no twin cams, Throttle body or carburated vehicles only." somehow we're running with an '02 neon, a passel of multiport cavaliers, and a couple of rather nastily built up Mopars, etc. he's holding his own just on experience in karts, and I bought the car already 'done'.

I want to build about 150-170 normally aspirated horsepower.

direction I would like to go: Long rod, (5.84) Light crank, light flywheel, cam, solid dampers, factory tube steel header, 'worked' 350 cfm carb on the '90's efi manifold (saw an adapter for it), windage tray, good oiling. Car has 4spd trans and 4.11 gears already.


4 plug or 8 plug head? (aftermarket head is out of the question. (the 40 horse increase would be nice but, that would be 'outside the spirit of the rules'

Wasn't there a 2.5 configuration based on the 2.3? (if so, we can squeeze a stroker in)

Is my horsepower goal realistic?

good decently priced suspension system?. (shocks, struts, springs) no sway bar as it 'binds' the front end which is 'bad' on dirt. 1-2" drop preferred

As it is a 4 link rear, (similar To a 'metric' GM), I'll be increasing the pinion angle to about 7-9 degrees to generate 'bite', and adding a steering Quickener to get it closer to the feel of the 'Karts' that he learned on.

anyone besides Esslinger and Racer Walsh that I can talk with?

Is Tower and Harwood still out there?

we need to compete with very light front wheel drives, making 120-150 hp

Colorado_Mustang

Ford did/does make a racing version of the 2.3L used in the trucks. I believe it was a 2.5L engine.

I would go with the twin plug head just to get the extra couple horses. You should be able to get a fairly healthy cam for that engine (you didn't cross it out in the rules), so 150ish horsepower should be fairly easy to achieve at the crank.