[spiffyjiff]

as some of you know, i've decided to bite the bullet and do a preempt rebuild on my DD/track car. it had 65k miles and 100+ track days, with many overrevs, smoke on start up, and some (valve) ticking, so i felt the time was right before anything else went seriously wrong = more $. there's a lot of good builders around here, no doubt, but i decided to go with Jake Raby in Ga. as he has a GREAT rep, especially re: my year and model. plus, his attn to detail and seemingly endless OCD/AR nature def appeal to me.

anyway, it's going in as a 3.8 but coming out as a 4.0, all the while having many of the inherent OEM weakness addressed, getting battle hardened guts, and getting some bling and upgrades added both internally and to the top/bottom end. i'll post pics and updates as i get them but since i understand very little about engine building or even what i'm seeing in the pics, you all can digest and decipher at will.

here are the first pics from the tear down. upon initial inspec, they are pretty sure the reusables - block, crank - are good but they won't know 100% certain until the final analysis from the machine shop. luckily, the only thing outside of the quoted build cost they have found is that i need all 12 vario-cam lifters but i have heard from others that that is not uncommon.

and awaaaaaaay we go.

back dat ass up!


and so it begins






is that scoring...?


is this the variocam lifter? (i'm so ignorant)




dirty dirty


again, i should know what this is but i mostly don't. it looks copper and maybe bearing related?


the money shot - thank god THIS is reusable!