First off, sorry about posting yet another rebuild thread but I’m hoping to get some of your guys’ input on what direction to take after pulling the motor in my GN. I've read through a ton of different threads on here on engine rebuilds, which were very helpful, but have also made me more confused than ever on what approach to take. To sum it up, I recently pulled the engine in my 104k mile 87 GN, not for rebuild purposes originally, but to clean everything up to make it more presentable in local shows and to fix oil leaks. However, after pulling it out I started second guessing just putting it back in the car without doing a rebuild considering the age, mileage, and the time involved in taking it out and putting it back in. Then after reading through many of the posts on here and the outcome of some of the rebuilds I’m now second guessing opening the motor at all.
The engine ran fine when I pulled it out while never burning a drip of oil and had no mechanical issues that I could tell. I did notice it did have some blow-by at idle coming out of the valve cover breather, but nothing that I thought was worth worrying about I assume.
I was planning on at least pulling the heads to at least check valves and inspect everything. However, I’ve read that the best head gasket seal on these cars were the factory gaskets which makes me wonder if it is even worth pulling the heads. Is this true?
My long term goal for this car is to make it a low to mid 11 second car that retains drivability and reliability as much as possible. From what I’ve read on here, this doesn’t seem to be too difficult with a fairly stock setup and alky. I already have a new alky kit waiting to be installed. I was told the stock turbo was replaced with a TE-34 turbo by the previous owner. The car also has a 3” downpipe, 60lb injectors, TT chip, larger fuel pump w/hot wire kit, power plate, and a scanmaster. If I don’t tear into the engine, what would you guys recommend to achieve this goal?
I guess in general, I’d just like to know anyone’s input on what they would do in this situation, would you do a full rebuild or not? Keep in mind I only put around 2k miles on this car a year. The money part is something to consider, but I’m more focused on doing it right than what it costs.
If there are any other tips or suggestions anyone has while having the engine out, I’d love to hear them.
As always, thanks for everyone’s input.
The engine ran fine when I pulled it out while never burning a drip of oil and had no mechanical issues that I could tell. I did notice it did have some blow-by at idle coming out of the valve cover breather, but nothing that I thought was worth worrying about I assume.
I was planning on at least pulling the heads to at least check valves and inspect everything. However, I’ve read that the best head gasket seal on these cars were the factory gaskets which makes me wonder if it is even worth pulling the heads. Is this true?
My long term goal for this car is to make it a low to mid 11 second car that retains drivability and reliability as much as possible. From what I’ve read on here, this doesn’t seem to be too difficult with a fairly stock setup and alky. I already have a new alky kit waiting to be installed. I was told the stock turbo was replaced with a TE-34 turbo by the previous owner. The car also has a 3” downpipe, 60lb injectors, TT chip, larger fuel pump w/hot wire kit, power plate, and a scanmaster. If I don’t tear into the engine, what would you guys recommend to achieve this goal?
I guess in general, I’d just like to know anyone’s input on what they would do in this situation, would you do a full rebuild or not? Keep in mind I only put around 2k miles on this car a year. The money part is something to consider, but I’m more focused on doing it right than what it costs.
If there are any other tips or suggestions anyone has while having the engine out, I’d love to hear them.
As always, thanks for everyone’s input.
