Have any of you messed with the Chevy ecotec motors?

[Racer71]

They’re getting popular as a second tier midget engine as well as in the hornet front wheel drive division. I’ve got one I’m putting together now for my sons hornet. It’s a 2.4 I had it decked as the piston was .022 in the hole cold. Looking for some advice on porting head etc. We’re going to use the 2.2 non variable valve timing head so we don’t have to go to electric throttle etc. Comp offers some cams for them, we have to maintain 14” vac at idle, which. I can help manipulate in the tune somewhat. Also looks like I’m going to have to make up some adj cam gears for it as I haven’t found much available. I figure some port work good springs and getting the cams degrees in should go a good ways for performance. Also going to deck the head possibly .010 to get the compression up. Suggestions or ideas welcome.

[mag2555]

I have never worked / ported one of those heads but I can give you a tip on keeping the vacuum up, that being the smaller the Combustion chamber the higher your vacuum reading will be!

Valve spring wise I would spend some time looking to see if I could run a Beehive type spring.

Along these same lines as running a titanium retainer ,anything you can do to help the motor rev faster as in lighter custom wrist pins and possibly taking some fat out of the pistons or fat on the top balancing pad on the Rods if they have such will be well worth it in terms of added performance, but of course then your into a balance job which might not be a bad idea all on its own as compared with a quick factory job!

Replace the Rod bolts now if you can so there failing does not come back and chew your Butt, and have a shop check the big end size.

[ptuomov]

Novice question: If there's an idle vacuum rule, wouldn't it make sense to retain the variable valve timing?

[mag2555]

Can that VVT factory set up handle the stress of racing ?

[CamKing]

Can that VVT factory set up handle the stress of racing ?

We did 10 sets of cams for that engine, for a big name Ford engine builder, and they ran the VVT with no issue. I wish they didn't run the VVT, because it would have been easier to make the cam cores, without all the oil passages that control the VVT.
Using the VVT, you could run a much larger cam, and still pull vacuum.
I don't think the ones I did were for a vacuum rule. They were pretty big (254/252@.050", .480"/.455")

[gofaster]

I had JE make some custom pistons with as much dome as possible, and decreased compression height to allow use of the longer 2.0 (H Beam) rod.
Later GM beehive springs:
12616671 Valve Springs
12575196 Valve Spring Retainers
12653350 Valve Seals
https://s542.photobucket.com/user/heads ... 1.jpg.html

[Racer71]

Was looking at some 78# springs with titanium retainers. I’ve got newway seat cutters and a gizmatic that I use on the bike motors for valve jobs that I believe will work on this head. Camking was it esslinger? The division two midget rules require stock cams but I don’t think a few other sanctioning bodies do. Are votes available for the non vvt for you to design a set of cams or should opt for something that’s already available? They have a claim rule on complete car that the promoter can excersize although I’ve never heard of it being used. They’re just simple front wheel drive dirt track cars mostly cavaliers and sunfires. Thanks for the info guys!