North American Turbocoupe Organization

Full Version: Rebuilding two motors - looking for advice
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I'm getting ready to pull the motor out of my 88TC. I also have another motor on a stand that's almost completely torn down. Here are the current states of these motors:
Spare Motor:
- believe it came from an 84 with 80ish-k miles on it 
- No known issues from previous owner
- Motor looks to be in good shape. Cylinders look good with original crosshatching still visible 

Motor coming out of the car:
- 95k miles
- Was smoking a little; I believe this was from bad valve stem seals. Ran strong otherwise 

Just to give an idea on plans for the car: it is getting completely torn down with everything getting looked at and upgraded. Interior has been removed along all wiring on the car. Wiring will be replaced with a new Ron Francis engine harness, painless performance chassis harness, and the current Pimp ECU. T5 transmission is getting replaced for a TKX with v8 clutch conversion. Car is getting a tubular k member to compliment the current coilover setup. Ideally, I'd like to eventually road race/time attack the car. There will be more on this as I plan to document everything here once the rebuild of the car starts. Stay tuned for that. 

As for the motors, my plan is to refresh one and have the other built with aftermarket rods and pistons. For the refresh, I'm thinking rod and main bearings, piston rings, and all associated gaskets. The motor will be receiving a boport stage 3 head with 2.1 cam, boport tubular exhaust manifold and garret t3/t4 turbo. What's everyone thoughts on the approach for the refresh? Should I go with all new bearings, rings, gaskets, etc. or would I be better off with just checking the rod bearings and replacing them with all associated gaskets? Thanks!
If you're pulling the head it isn't much more work, or money, to fit new bearings and re-ring it. New gaskets wouldn't hurt anything either. Then you know exactly what you've got and should be good to go for a while.