My point was that cheap power is to add cubic inches. But your wanting stock size to experiment with. Also my other point was that because your dealing with a very Small amount of cubic inches I wouldn't be expecting a whole lot. Unless you put it in a 1500 pound roadster or something light, then you might see that engine wake up a bit more. Keep in mind the 230,250,292 all had the same bore size. More air flow doesn't hurt. The 1.72 intake is rather restrictive, not mentioning that head bolt boss. And I'm not Comparing it to a 292, I'm Saying that adding cubic inches Helps. lol Hence why I mentioned stroking it to a 250.
First.... 230 is not "Small" cubic inches by any means, LOL. That's 3.8 liters, which is HUMONGOUS by European standards.
Yes, but not so much by US standards! I can easily make 200HP out of a 2 liter 4 cylinder. 100hp per liter of displacement has been achieved decades ago and is now more or less a standard. In contrast.... 3.8 liters should EASILY make 300-380hp.... right?
By European standards for sure, but not by US inline standards unless its an Atlas engine!
My 2 liter 1937-based design VW beetle is 2 liters and almost hitting 200hp. USA has always made horsepower primarily with displacement, not focusing on breathing, flow, and efficiency. I wanted to optimize the 230, to see what it could do. Logic says, there's gotta be a lot of reserve power hiding in 3.8 liters of displacement, which is a LOT of displacement. The design is just very, very inefficient. Choked down by many things.
True! Mainly its an engine designed for budget minded people with not a lot of money to spend, so it didn't have engineers like Zora Arkus Duntov designing it like GM did for developing the V8 stuff.The head is already ported and lumped so it is about as good as it can get with reasonable amount of work. Not sure everyone agrees lump kit is reasonable either. Bigger valves could give me a little more power, but I find it hard to believe that the difference could be as dramatic as some posts here are trying to make you think they do.
The lumps probably help the least amount by themselves compared to what larger valves and bigger cams contribute, but its all part of the package, a little here and a little there.
I have done many engines with larger valves, and many with stock valves. At THIS mild level of tune, I don't see them being a major bottleneck. It is not the secret key to unlimited power.
Even though you have completed many steps of modifications to the head, by European standards however, it is still sub par to what Euro technology has done with their smaller engines and their cylinder head technology. If you put an overhead cam head on the 230 you'd be where you'd expect to be by now compared to what you've experienced in the past.
That's one thing that does spoil you when you begin tinkering with these engines, if you've already experienced more power from other engines, it's easy to not be impressed by them. And you might not ever be unfortunately. US standards of inline engines and technology will never hold a candle to European standards of engineering and technology. So if that's the standard your comparing these engines too, i'd stop spending money now.LOL
