PRattenbury
Neophyte
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2007
- Messages
- 1,095
I suppose I know the right thing to do already, but after the head was pulled from my engine, reality showed its face. I was hoping to put my new head on, and a new cam, and put things back together after a lot of cleaning and painting. The problem is the truck has 226,000 miles on it, which isn't too awful bad for these engines. The other problem is, all the cylinder walls have vertical scuffs in them. Number 5 has a scuff that can be felt with a fingernail. The engine didn't run bad before I took it apart, no significant blow by. But given the age of the engine and the presence of the scuffs, I'm pretty much unable to justify putting performance goodies in it and running at the power levels I want to run. My trust in my luck tells me I would regret that decision before long. Since I've already pretty much committed about 10 grand to the head, cam, pump, turbo(s), and so forth, the pockets are feeling the pain. Would the most efficient way to get myself straightened out properly be yanking my block and sending it off to be freshened up, or buying a reman short block (which would leave me with yet another spare cam). I'm definitely all for getting it balanced. Would I be able to run 800 horses on the street without studs, girdle and that sort of thing? Would coated pistons be worth it? Are Arias or Mahle better? Knowing my timing will be set at 24 degrees, is there anything along the lines of head gasket thickness, cam timing, certain types of piston tops that would make the components work the best together? Delays, delays, delays.... :bang