lightening a 4cyl crank...

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Gapless ® Piston Rings

Total Seal's patented Gapless ® Piston rings provide increased performance through unmatched sealing of the cylinder and combustion gasses in the combustion chamber. Increased horsepower and torque along with longer engine life are just a couple of the reasons why Total Seal's Gapless ® Piston rings are the best rings available. Here are many more.
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How it Works...

As shown in the illustration, compression gas is deflected by the rail into the piston groove and aid in pressure loading the ring throughout the 4 stroke cycle. At the same time the rail also and most importantly closes off the combustion gas leak path created by the ring end gap. This gap is the primary cause of blow-by in a 4 cycle engine. With a conventional type ring as the ring and cylinder wear the ring end gap increases and the blow-by figures increase. The Gapless® ring blow-by figures are not affected by this wear, as the ring end gap increases it is blocked by the rail portion of Total Seals patented interlocking 2 piece design stopping the blow-by at the source. Conventional style rings when newly installed will show leak down figures of 7% or higher these figures can quickly exceed 20% or higher after a surprisingly short period of time. Gapless® rings on the other hand when newly installed typically show leak down figures of 2% and lower and should remain the same throughout the life of the engine.
 
Not saying Total Seal gapless rings are overrated, but well............ If you do use them, make sure you get the top ring gapless set vs the second ring gapless. 2nd ring gapless are next to useless as gas pressure trapped between the top and second ring tends to cause sealing problems. Total seal rings do make pretty leakdown numbers though, but whether you notice it on the dyno/real world is debatable.

22R was an emission development of the 20R. Displacement was increased 200CC to cover for the performance reductions that were incurred because of design chnges to meet emission standards.

As an economy engine, it ain't. It is primarily an emission engine. 22R heads have "swirl ports" and they sort of work with leaner mixtures to reduce detonation/nitrous oxide formation. Just about everything on that engine was made to meet emission standards until the 22RE and the V6 came online a couple of years later.

Economy- simple stuff first. Make sure boring/honing is done with a proper torque plate to reduce blowby (which is 10X more important than any ring pack you could run). Conservative cam, might advance it 2-4 degrees to bump up low end torque. Not much of a top end on a 22R anyway (due to those swirl ports)so make power where it counts. Verify carb is OK (this means checking th AAP diaphragm, and VDV/VSVs on it's vac circuit to make sure they are operating to spec, same for the VSV/VDVs on the distributor advance. If any of those VSVs stick you have too much carb enrichment, or reduced timing advance.

Additional modifications depend on cost/benefit ratios. You can coat the piston tops if you want to, but can you amortize the cost over the lifetime of the engine? How many miles will it take to pay off a new economy cam, or headers?

Been there with 22Rs ('81 and '82). They are essentially long stroke/low rev tractor engines. You will never get great economy out of them (compared to a modern engine). My honest advice is to make what you have as efficient as possible, and run them 200K-500K miles.

The above is just an opinion, I could be wrong.
 
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Falicon used to lighten and balance cranks and balance rods. I have had really good success with them. If you still want to go this route, look them up.
 
Originally Posted By: punisher
Conservative cam, might advance it 2-4 degrees to bump up low end torque.
what if i were to adv. it as much as possible,keeping a safe margin,obviously.Come to think of it,the engine that i got free is a 22RE.Is there any benefit to a RE versus r,if i'm running a carb?
 
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
mods for rear diff? like what? i have synth. oil already.


IDK, but if you know "a guy" who can set the lash right where the wear pattern is in the middle of the gears, (or where it's supposed to be), you might have slightly fewer losses. Your biggest driveline losses are in the diff, so if you find someone who knows them they can pull the cover and check everything out in there.

Of couse losing $25 worth of syn gear oil prematurely will take a long time to get back in gas savings.
 
agree. a nice rebuild, balanced if you'd like (it's extra cost to an old engine). Do they make bolt-on FI setups? Even a SPFI bolt-on would likely outdo the oem carb and it's 39 vacuum hoses.

Free-flow exhaust/headers to extract the fumes. Drop the front end a little or add some aerodynamics. Cap, tailgate, net-gate, everyone says "mine is best" I think an open bed or a cap is likely the best aero mod for the rear.

Tires that are too narrow will actually flex more, adding more rolling resistance than is gained from aero gains. The magic number depends on the vehicle.

Syn in driveline, absolutely.

electric cooling fan.

you might underdrive the power steering pump, at your own risk.

new gears in the axle to drop cruise rpm, but this will reduce acceleration and to some extent increase clutch wear off the line.

you may be able to mask off part of the grill to reduce front-end turbulence. very experimental.

M
 
Remember that you can get better gas mileage with an old misfiring oil burning engine with the proper highway gear in it, vs. the stock one and your new engine.
Do you want less total costs or bragging rights?
 
Originally Posted By: punisher

As an economy engine, it ain't. It is primarily an emission engine. 22R heads have "swirl ports"
are swirl ports good or bad? If they are bad,can you minimize the "swirl" effect some?
 
Swirl ports would be better for the combustion chamber being evenly filled with a good mixture.

In general, this is for economy.
But who knows at what RPM and throttle opening they are functioning best?
 
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I love 22R's But I have to admit you are really
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if you are going to spend $ to get better MPG's
Have you considered switching to Fuel injection stock or Mega squirt with a better ignition (crank/Flywheel triggered)
But really the 22R is what it is A big old Labrador puppy of an engine that will do what you ask for 100's of K and return decent (but not great millage) while doing so.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
I love 22R's But I have to admit you are really
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if you are going to spend $ to get better MPG's
It's the fun of tinkering and trying new stuff out(to me) that makes me want to try some things on a fresh rebuild.Delta cams is supplying the reground rv cam.they said that it should bump up mpg's at hwy speeds.can't wait to finish!
 
DEfinately swap to injection.
Stock is ok, really slow computer, not very smart (I have friends running 2t-ge's off of 22re ecus) but cheap and redily available.
megasquirt with a simple standalone like megasquirt and something like ford's EDIS is really simple and easy to accomplish, ditches the distributor, and you can use any reasonable combination of parts to make it work.
The real question is the work worth it for a few miles per gallon?
 
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
I checked the rpm's at 60-65mph and the rpm's are 2450 or so. Too high,or ?
So,is this too high of an rpm for this gear and speed?
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
what year engine did you get? carbed engines were gone by 86. If its a pre 85 engine then you can bolt a 20r head on and get more compression.


Actually, I believe they were available through at least 90' overlapping the availability of the EFI 22RE. I have an 89 with the carbed 22R, so it was at least through then.
 
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