Hey everyone. I'm new to racing 4cylinders but my first car is a 99 Z24 with the 2.4l. I haven't heard
Anything too good about this motor and was wondering why? Should I be racing the 2.2 instead?

Any advice for a half mile paved oval or setup tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

I am personally a 2.4 fan. You'll have trouble ever matching the power with a 2.2 (unless its the eco). Some people do no tlike them because the old 2.3 engines had head cracking issues, not a 2.4 issue, but it still caries the reputation. Also the 2.4 oiling system is not the best at high RPMs, so always make sure your oil is topped off. I had one in a vert that lasted to roughly 215k before the head gasket went, I could probably repair and keep rolling for a while. My 01 Z has one with 74k and is still rolling strong.

Idk I bought a 01 grand am with a bad 2.4 the person I got the car from apparently didn’t know how to check her oil because she ran it 2 quarts low and blew it. So I changed the motor I got a used motor form a reliable source. About 3 months after i sold the car the water pump went out. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem... I was wrong what I didn’t realize was the fact that it ran off the timing chain so what would have been a one hour job on an echo or, the original 2200 turned into a 10 hour process because the water pump also has the thermostat housing connected to it so there were 4 different gaskets that needed to seal correctly and you need to take the exhaust manifold off just to get at it and you of course need to take the timing cover and chain off to fix it. That and they could never get the head gasket right the first few years. They redesigned the head because head gaskets kept going out and that’s not an easy job to do on a DOHC. They got it right near the end of production, but it costs an insane amount of time and money. The motor has the same flaw as the ecotec. The timing chain tensioner is driven by oil pressure so if anyone wants to buy a DOHC buy the late model 2.4 quad or the 2.2 eco… seriously the only thing the quad has going for it is the extra 10 hp over the echo. But at the same time your stuck running that motor otherwise your not going to be competitive. The whole thing in my opinion is an unreliable nightmare. The echo and the quad are both zero tolerance motors as well and if you go stick a couple grand porting and polishing a head you’d better make sure you get all 80 feet of timing chain on right lol. And worse yet your planning on beating the hell out of it, trying to make it do something it wasn’t designed for so good luck. lol i suppose im in the same boat... oh well

Sam, the ecotec also run the water pump off the timing chain, however they make a tool so you don't have to take off the timing cover.


- Your not-so-local, untrained, uncertified, backyard mechanic. But my @!#$ runs

10 hours?!

Holy jeebus the book on it is only 8 hours and it took myself and a friend 5 hours to do taking our sweet ass time and cleaning and painting other parts that were off... this includes installing a new crank seal and idling the engine for 25 minutes while the coolant system burped itself.

The LD9 is perfectly reliable simply keep the oil topped up right to the top of the hash marks and don't try to run it to 7000 rpm in stock form.

If yours is leaking oil from the cam towers I suggest you tear it down once and rebuilt it with new gaskets and a new water pump and you'll be perfectly fine. These cars with a 5spd put down a very consistent 128-130 whp on a dyno with a nice torque curve that's ideal for racing around a track.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...