I'm looking for suggestions for "base" engines. It's not worth going into Why I'm Thinking About This right now.
Roughly, I need candidates from the major domestic and foreign manufactures for a 2.0 liter four cylinder automobile engine which are:
1. Roughly comparable in hp/torque/weight (+/- 5%)
2. Common and easily available
3. Inexpensive
4. Reliable
5. Supported by the aftermarket
I did some research on Wikipedia but couldn't find engines that were either all aluminum or iron block/aluminum head across the Big Three.
Any ideas?
Supported in the aftermarket is iffy, and they are getting old, but the Neon and Focus two liters are both sturdy and relatively quick. Junkyards used to be full of them. The Neons are getting melted down pretty regularly now, though.
GM Ecotec, Honda K20, and that is about it at this point isnt it? 2.3 ecoboosts seem to be the most common, but 2.3 instead of 2.0 liter.
Now you said nothing about which drive configuration it needs to be FWD or RWD
There are a plethora of 2.0L Ecotecs out there depending on what you're looking for. Port injection, direct injection, supercharged, turbocharged, FWD, RWD, older, newer, cheaper, more expensive. Some factory computers are easily tunable, others are a struggle. Some have the exhaust and intake ports on opposite sides of the head from the others.
Since you haven't given any information to narrow it down, I'll just pick for you. Here's a good one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Ecotec_engine#LHU_(A20NFT_Opel)
You can probably throw the Hyundai Theta II Turbo (Genesis Coupe, Veloster N, etc.) in the conversation too. It's a distant cousin of the old Mitsubishi Evo engines: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Theta_engine#Theta_II_Turbo
Okay, lemme 'splain my thinking here.
I was thinking about F5000 engines and realized that Mopars would normally be excluded because 318 is too big and 273 is too old and small. Then I started wondering about ~2 liter fours. Chrysler and Ford have roughly comparable engines but GM doesn't appear to. I'm sure there are other options but that's what I was trying to find--a normally aspirated 2 liter four with either an iron block/aluminum head or all aluminum. There doesn't appear to be an answer in domestic engines...
