Re: 2.5 L I-5 Ok, WHO's done it...

[OorQue@aol.com]

> IIRC, you've said the crank isn't worth the money, it will only produce X
>  amount more torque, a turbo motor would be much better, etc, etc...

Ahh ... but what a turbo motor with a 95.5mm stroke?  Isn't that what this 
thread was originally about?  Since 10-valve motors aren't particularly 
high-revving, it seems like a perfect combination (to me, anyway!) since you 
can recover the bottom-end and midrange torque that you typically lose by 
porting the head/choosing the cam and turbo/etc. and still have a much 
improved top-end.  So long as you keep the rpms down, piston-speed shouldn't 
be an issue and using a longer stroke instead of a bigger bore helps keep the 
piston crown cooler, etc by reducing the amount of surface area exposed to 
the burning charge, all of which helps both reliability and longevity.

As for the cost issue, with used Eurovan shortblocks going for $500 or less 
-- I paid $500 for one of mine and $350 for other -- and custom pistons being 
not much more costly than off-the-shelf ones, the additional cost isn't too 
bad ... at least that's the rationale I used when I undertook this project!  
:^)

JG