Challenge veterans, guide me

In reply to Robbie:

Is there ever enough hp?

Stampie wrote: In reply to Robbie: Is there ever enough hp?

Enough, as in "That's ENOUGH, no one will ever need more", or enough as in, "That was ENOUGH to make me cry, wet my pants and scream for my Mommy like a little girl".

One is an unattainable goal. The other, easily attainable.

Robbie wrote: I hear that a dealership in Ohio is pushing 550hp from a Ford 2.3. 550 HP ought to be enough.

Indeed! 2.3 Ecoboost swap is the plan for several years from now, but I've always wanted a twin turbo v8 project, so I'm going to do that first.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: If you need specific Merkur parts that are small enough to ship let me know, I have a pretty good collection of spares. The Lima is tough, if it runs well and has oil pressure I think it should survive the challenge as long as you don't do anything stupid. The one in the rally car was making less oil pressure than boost for some of Black River Stages last year, along with coolant temps as high as 240F, and apart from a slightly noisy top end seems to be no worse for it.

I appreciate the offer, and may reach out at some point for some small bits if I can't get them locally. The good news is this isn't my first XR, and I've done a fair bit of mods to my other one, which I've auto-x'd and rally-x'd. I know the 2.3 is a solid engine unless you get stupid with boost, overheat it excessively, run it very lean with too much timing, or simply run it without oil. But even then, it still takes effort to properly kill them dead. I'm hopeful that I can get 250hp/300tq with 20psi out of the stock .60/.63 turbo, Ranger roller, LA3 & big vam, cossie IC, ported e6, etc., and keep the Challenge XR plenty durable. Hopefully.

SVreX wrote:

Stampie wrote: In reply to Robbie: Is there ever enough hp?

Enough, as in "That's ENOUGH, no one will ever need more", or enough as in, "That was ENOUGH to make me cry, wet my pants and scream for my Mommy like a little girl". One is an unattainable goal. The other, easily attainable.

I didn't take the offered ride due to SWMBO being with me, but the guy that got out of a turbo'd LSX miata passenger seat said something about needing a change of shorts, and losing traction @ 90mph. That might be enough...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: In reply to Spinout007: Do you want a E36 M3ty XSpower turbo header instead? You'll need to come up with a solution for bolting it on, but I have one I'm not using since I refuse to use something that hard to install/remove. Also have a cracked E6 manifold if you want to try to weld that up instead.

It's only a line right now, still working the angles. But I may very well take you up on that. Especially with the OP talking about 250hp/300tq out of a lima. That sounds highly amusing for a daily beater truck that theoretically should get better than the 12/13mpg I see out of my full size.

Buddha, I was about to say "hit the salvage yard. Go get the Ranger roller cam and followers, Turbo Coupe intercooler, Super Coupe injectors and an adjustable fuel pressure regulator" but its obvious that you got this!

See you in October

Instead of focusing on what, focus on when. IMHO, try to have a fully running car in July.

Take it to as many autocrosses and drag days as you can to tune it.

That will get you good results AND point the next direction.

QuasiMofo wrote: Buddha, I was about to say "hit the salvage yard. Go get the Ranger roller cam and followers, Turbo Coupe intercooler, Super Coupe injectors and an adjustable fuel pressure regulator" but its obvious that you got this! See you in October

I'd like to think so, but XR4TIs have a way of undermining the best of intentions, and expertise. Still, I'm starting with a fairly well set up car that just needs a bit of this and a bit of that, so at least there's that.

How much tire can you fit? How much more tire if you cut the fenders a little?
-Find the widest wheels you can afford and fit and throw on the softest bias ply compound you can find in the same width of the hopefully very wide wheels you bought.
-Scour the internet for what high level autocrossers used for spring rates and somehow match or exceed that in the same ratios front to rear with whatever combination of circle track and take off parts you can find.
-Get your brakes perfect! (solid pedal, predictable, balanced front to rear).
-Set up the suspension to take advantage of the Bias Plys and tune toe and such by having someone who is good at autocrossing put it through its paces.
-Make it really pretty
-Progressively turn up the boost at the drags until you get the place you want or blow it up.

Next year get an LSD if it doesn't have one. Make more power. Lighten the heck out of it. Make it prettier. Fix geometry problems. Etc.