I have a 94 2.2 OHV, have to do my head gasket again and plan on building the head while it's off. Overheating was short term so the head should still be good, if not would anyone know of a good deal in Wisconsin for one? Don't want to go to a boneyard chances are half the J's are in there for that. Anyways on to what I'm doing. I plan on getting it ported and polished, installing 1.6 rockers, and milling the head. My concern comes in milling the head. With the 1.6 rockers it would be 0.461" lift at the valve so I'm wondering what kind of clearance I will have. I want to bump the compression about as high as stock internals and pump gas will handle, will run 93 if I have to. So would anyone have an idea on how much to shave off and approximately what compression ratio it would give me? Stock is listed at 8.85 to 1.

94 Cavalier - Red Bullet - 198k An Goin Strong
82 Cutlass - Gutlass - The PITA Project

we run .450 lift at the valve in our cars and have milled over .100. i would start by shaving .050-.060 that way it teh motor does heat up you can still mill it one more time before having issues, while the head is off you ought to think about putting a cam in the motor as well as new lifters and the 91 style oil pump

So I finally got around to tearing the head off and found too many cracks for it to be cost effective to repair, luckily with a tip from the machine shop I found a new head for $310 shipped. So shaving .060 off the head sounds like the best bet, with some quick math it looks like it will yield about a .8 boost to compression. As far as the porting I was told that this head has a pretty good port design and the main difference maker would be smoothing the lip behind the valve seat. Are there any other areas to smooth that may be beneficial, and what type of bits should I use to do the porting? I also ordered the +1 mm valves from Car Customs, I'm thinking i should do the main port work first then some touch up after the seats are cut to accept them. On to the rockers, I was hoping to save a little bit while still getting top quality so i was looking at the Comp Cams 19002-1 but am unsure if they will work. Do only the LT1 compatible rockers fit these motors? With the pushrod length I found some discrepancy searching the forums, one post has the length at 7.406" and another at 7.457". Which one is correct for the '94 so I can order the proper compensated length? Lastly, on the oil pump recommendation I found 2 PN's for the pump, M98 and M-98HV. Basically the OE and a high volume one, if the OE 90-93 pump already is better than the 94 is it really worth 3x the money for a higher volume version of that?




94 Cavalier - Red Bullet - 198k An Goin Strong
82 Cutlass - Gutlass - The PITA Project

The 90-93 standard pump is already better, and going with the HV is going to induce more parasytic drag.

There is plenty of meterial you can take off the exhaust side of the head in just gasket matching. I beleave there is a hump on the 2.2 exhast port you can shave down a tad bit also. For the intake side there is also some can be taken off and it really important to get those runners smooth so more fuel makes it into the combustion chamber. I would say yes you will need some tunning to acomidate you raising the compression ratio and putting alot more air into the engine. And unless you add a header and exhaust along with cleaning up you intake maifold and maybe adding a Bigger TB is really when you'll see that head work pay off.
Im going with the 90-93 pump the HO pump is only need if you really have a crazy built motor, otherwise your loosing power as previously stated.
You could probably find a totaled car in the junkyard with a decent head. A machine shop can megaflux the head (to check for hairline cracks) and check for warping. If is f'ed most junkyards offer a warranty, keep pulling head till you find a good one. 310 sounds too much since rebuilt ones go for cheaper.
I Don't know much about your pushrod question and rockers question since I have a 2200 motor.
Good luck!

Thanks for the clarification with the oil pump, and I just answered my own question with the rockers. Checked Summit again and they are not the narrow bodied ones so Crane Golds here I come. Also went ahead and got a length checker for the pushrods to take out any margin of error there. And yes I did check out rebuilt heads too, but $90 more for a new casting assembled head, beefed up in the important areas, with a 5 yr./unlimited mile warranty that they'll still honor even with the work done to it sounded like a pretty sweet deal. It should be in later today too, sucks that I'm still waiting on the valves to ship. With any luck though this car should be back on the road early June. Once budget allows it will be getting a header with exhaust to match, as far as the throttle body though are there any options for that besides boring? Tuning could be a pain, haven't heard of any OBD 1 tuners in my area and a far as I've seen there isn't even a programmable chip made for these cars. Hopefully just using better gas should keep it safe. The oil pump I'll probably put in after flushing the motor, I'm sure theres still plenty of goop in passages I haven't been able to clean. I've heard using a light weight diesel oil for a short run does wonders from all the detergents in it, any good arguments against that?




94 Cavalier - Red Bullet - 198k An Goin Strong
82 Cutlass - Gutlass - The PITA Project

what could i do to make it a bit faster i want to be able to smoke my friends cobalt seens he thinks is the baddest car in the world he has a stock o8 cobalt?

I've got a few things to share that'll help:

Oil Pump: Depending on what's given oiling priority when the block was penned, that determines what type of pump to go with.

Crankshaft = High-volume.

Lifters & cam-bearings = High-pressure.

The LN2 is designed to give priority to the lifters, so as to assure quiet operation after start-up. (A common consumer measure of quality). Same goes for the Ford 385-series V-8 (460ci) since it was mainly meant for use in the Lincoln, but that's only mildly relevant. If this was a Small-Block Chevy, I'd say go with the highest volume you can with the least pressure necessary (A Big-Block Chevy pump with a modified spring). But since this is just the opposite, I say go with the highest pressure possible [the M98].

Octane & Tuning: Having owned a all-stock LN2'd '94 S-truck, I can tell you there is great importance in running the highest octane you can commonly get. Even with EGR & 4.10-FDR, that truck just didn't like running less than 90-points on-average. There are a few PROM programmers out there (TPI Specialties?) and they will burn ya a new one... But you best get all your facts together first, or you'll spend alot of time waiting on you chip while it's in mail-delivery limbo. And paying for it to-boot!

Valvetrain Mods: Your choices for rockers range from those meant for the 60* V-6 (2.8-3.4L) the '87-'95 SBC heads that use center-bolt valve-covers & the LT1.
Another thing that's also done to assure high-RPM durability is the use of the plunger & check-ball springs from LT1 lifters in the otherwise stock LN2 lifter assemblies.



Go beyond the "bolt-on".

If you're going to shave the head .060", be sure to get push rods that are .060" shorter than your stock push rods. TrickFlow has various lengths in a 5/16" diameter, .080" walled chrome molly tubing. (Note: if you use 5/16" push rods with the '94-'97 motors, remove the guide plates and use self-aligning rocker arms. If you use both, you could cause major parts damage.)These are what I used with the 1.6 Crane Gold Race narrow bodied self-aligning rocker arms. Crane isn't the only narrow bodied rocker arms, Scorpion Performance has the narrow bodied rocker arms, self-aligning or non-self-aligning, in set of 12, 16 or individually.

The LS6 lifter springs come in a kit from British Car Conversions for either L4, V6, or V8s.

Careful porting & polishing the head. You can ruin them easily. Just do the following:

Port match the intake ports of the head. Just make them a few thousandths bigger than the intake manifolds runners.

Port match the exhaust port to just a few thousandths smaller than the exhaust manifold ports or header ports.

Smooth any rough casting surfaces in the runners. Unlike a carb'ed or TBI motor, you can finish the runners smooth, since the fuel is injected right at the intake valve.

Profile the the valve guide ridges, so the air will flow with less interference around the guide.

Maintain a throat diameter 80%-85% of the valve head diameter. The throat is the area right behind the pressed in valve seat. (the +1mm valves I got had a head diameter of 1.767", so maintain a throat diameter of 1.414" to 1.502".)

Leave the "vane" in the exhaust runner. It reduces turbulence, caused by the dead space on the short side radius and reversion in the exhaust.

what could i do to the tranmission is a 5 speed

Does anyone have a photo of their ported 2.2l intake manifold? I bought a ported head from a member and want to match the intake mani, I'm just a little concerned now that the head port may be too aggressive.


Sig'less since '02!

I just bolted my mani to the motor last month. Didn't think about taking any pictures.

Thanks for all the great info guys! Too bad the budget ran dry for now, but at least i have a link for the lifter upgrade when I decide to regrind the cam. When it's time to tune I guess I'll just have to call some chip companys, but may have to go the megasquirt route. Seems OBD-I is getting less and less love. I thought the pushrods were 3/8" diameter though, unless the 5/16" is required with the self-aligning rockers. And yes, guideplates will be replaced with washers to shim the studs. For redbeansandrice I should be able to post some pics in a week or so of the port jobs for both head and mani. It will mainly be gasket matching with some minor smoothing. The new head was pretty nice to start with! If the head you got had the entire ports enlarged though I would say it is too aggressive unless you plan on turning some big RPMs.


94 Cavalier - Red Bullet - 198k An Goin Strong
82 Cutlass - Gutlass - The PITA Project

Well valves finally came in so I got the head up to the machine shop and found the ambition to finish the intake mani, so here's a few pics for the guy who asked.




The setbacks keep comin though, had to replace front brakes from hoses up and driver's halfshaft. Also found out the valve guides on the head were a little sloppy so new ones are being put in. I'm just itchin to get this thing back on the road, been way too long. Plus I found some neat little apps for android that'll give me some approximate numbers.




94 Cavalier - Red Bullet - 198k An Goin Strong
82 Cutlass - Gutlass - The PITA Project