thinking of building a 2.3 up a bit and looking for the best prices so any help and input welcome i know esslinger & racer walsh sell long rod and 2.5 kits
i also would love to find a good price on an aluminum head
(was told edlebrock sold one but when i called i got the dumbest person there)
orellys shows one for a svo from edlebrock but has never been confirmed unless i drop 700$
so any one know of a place that sells kit for a good price let us in on the info

i thought the 5.7 rods they used where small journal SBC rods? Like pre-68 327 rods.

The original 5.7 conversions used chevy 6 cylinder rods. They are chamfered on both sides and the width is closer to the 2.3. The 2.3 rod journals have to be turned to 2.0". Now Esslinger, RaceEng, and others offer 5.7 rods with the 2.3 journal. I have a set of Esslinger 5.7 rods and Wiseco 3.84" bore pistons. The pistons are flat top with valve reliefs and have been thermal coated on the tops and antifriction coated on the skirts. All parts are new. Will take $550 plus shipping if anyone is interested. JT 

The chevy rods are way to weak if you plan on turning over 6K.  :reek:

Rapido heads are a stock style heads with the exception its lighter.

 you can get the cash to buy a godly ARCA aluminum head then build custom intake and exhaust manifolds.
(never herd of this ) more info

if your gunna do the whole long rod kit are you gunna put a 2.5 crank in it too? thought the cranks where the same just the bore

want to build for toque more than hp longer stroke will give me this

considering volvo head but have only heard a bit about it

well looks as far as a good deal on a head is go with a turbo head and have it worked on a bit  decked ......... should be about 300$

Yes, 3.84 is 0.060 oversize. Pistons and rods should fit easily into a large flat rate box so shipping would be about $15.

An arca head is the highest flowing head that esslinger produces.

As for the crank i thought i read somewhere before that they where different but then again i could be wrong. LOL

Volvo heads flow better then most esslinger SVO heads but there is some fab work that must be done to install one its not just a drop on and go kinda thing. Also if your going N/A i dont know how well a volvo head would preform since i think most of the cam grinds for them are made for turbo applications.

well i looked into the volvo head and its a ton of work to put them on also there is no twin cam turbo heads they take work to make them work and piston mods and custom valves and timing belt tensioner fab problems ........ i havent found a ton on the single cam head but i would like to know more about it.    it looks as the esslinger head dose flow better or equal to depending on who u talk to
with out turbo there is only a limited flow needed and to much will cause a lack of back presser and drop in torque and as im wanting this thing to tow that would not be a good thing

There are 2 different esslinger heads the D-Port (SVO) aluminum and the Arca Aluminum.

Heres a link from Boports forum where he did a flow test on all the heads including his ported Iron head.
http://www.boportforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=generaltech&action=display&thread=9

ok so if u took those numbers and put them in a line graph which head dose the best? plz keep in mind that those numbers are repeated on every rotation so @ 900 rpm's u get those numbers 900 time and 4000 rpm's u get those numbers 4000 times ....... also keep in mind duration is not listed and timing also effects this too as well as bore and compression/boost
THIS IS WHY IT IS CALLED TUNING OR BLUE PRINTING

if we r talking pure performance arca dose the best and the boessyD  then the volvo (how ever the volvo may rev faster but may have cam... limitations IM NOT SURE HAVING NOT PLAYED WITH IT

HOWEVER looking at those number i know a MODIFIED  turbo d or round suits my needs
SO this info was very helpful to me and appreciated

They are the same but the biggest problem with the stock 2.5 is the crank is super heavy. You would be far better off buying a stroker kit, you can go up to 2.8.

p.s. again im not looking for H/P but pulling power the car will be loaded down most of the time  (so a lil weight aint going to hurt if the torque is worth it) even more if it hasn't been done

71pintoracer but ur 0.02 is worth 100$ on this thanx

if i was you id just do as you said just port out either a d port or a round port head toss in a nice little cam which ranger rollers are more for lowend which would be great for your needs then if you wanna do a long rod upgrade go for it If not just mill the head some and up the compression and run that for now. Maybe even get ya a nice 2.3 aftermarket intake if you can get one on the cheap if not maybe clean up the runners on your stock one a lil bit.
If you was building a circle track monster or sumthing id say go arca/2.8 stroker kit and see if it would hold together at 7800 LOL.

i cut all the 73's up for roundy rounds the 2.0 hold the r's so good u dont need the horse's