AE92 Head and Block

[Dogs Danglies]

Is the 16v head on the AE92 really that much better than the ae86 head.
And are all the ae92 blocks the 7 rib design.

I might be able to get a ae92 cheapsih so thinking of doing the engine swap. Is it quite straight forward, or alot of hassel with the distributor, and water pipes ect.

Thanks,
Jason

[banpei]

It depends what you want to do with it. 7 rib block is stronger and the second generation 4AG in the AE92 has a smallport head which some people consider as a high potential block because they are quite easy to tune up to 200hp. The first generation is basically the same as the ae86 though, except it has 7 ribs instead of 3.

[robokill]

the smallport head is tunable in the same ways as the bigport. Only the smallport is unmodified good for 200 hp while the bigport will do better above it :-)

[Ivan141]

Not all AE92's have 7-rib engines....you should look for later models (around 90-92 I think). Some of the older ones have TVIS(bigport) 30rib engines, some have 7-rib TVIS engines, and the later ones are supposed to have smallport non-TVIS 7-rib engines.

[Dogs Danglies]

Yeah I was doing some frantic last minute searching last night, looking up all the specs on ae92's, the one I was looking at is a '91, so hopefully should have the 7-rib, small port.

Some sites say that the small port is a better head, not just up to 200bhp, but for everything?

[Ivan141]

Well it is better in general, may I ask why your so interested in the performance above 200hp
Just remember that a modified smallport intake manifold is needed to get the most potential out of it. So unless you go with ITB's dont buy any silly adapter plates for the AE86 manifold.. Just spend the cash on a bigger (supra) throttle body and some welding work and you will end up happier.

[NoHachi]

Don't go with a bigger TB..or you will loose your cherished throttle response for "maybe" 2 or 3 ponies up top..The stock Throttle body flows just fine up to 170hp and even higher.
Fit the supra throttle body when u start to make supra power..

Edit: just remembered..there is one way of doing this. I remember from the miata world that there was one guy making variable ratio throttle linkages..basically a new throttle disc with a couple of holes in it, that allowed u to adjsut the leverage on the throttle..You could have very sensitive small throttle opening characteristics, that got less sensitive with larger throttle positions.

[Dogs Danglies]

I'm not specifically after 200bhp, just banpei said the big ports flow better at 200bhp+.

For now if I get the car just probably go for a re-build and a set of cams, with ITB's and exhaust mainfold in the future.