The motor, broken into shortblock, heads, and assorted other parts have been delivered to Al Papitto at Boss330 Racing.

His initial take was that he was very impressed with the internal cleanliness of the 130K mile motor. He said most 50-60K motors aren't as clean.

He believes, upon cursory look, that the heads are good and the block may be able to be saved.

The damaged caused by this broken piston:



is not nearly as severe as many he's seen (and some he showed me!).

This gouge :



was likely caused by the ring 'sticking' to the wall due to the high heat of detonation and then being broken off by the down-stroke.

He will be performing an 'autopsy' and will then make recommendations. Initially he thinks the block may be saved by a .020 over. He says he's going to start with .006 - .008 over in that piston and see if it looks like it'll go.

If the block can be saved, the initial plan is to rebuild with new (forged, of course) parts including .020 over with 2cc dish pistons resulting in a net compression of about 9.0-1 which should be perfect for boost.

This post is not put up for the sake of arguement, but to let everyone know where their money is going and to regurgitate what I've had the privelege of learning from such a knowledgable source.

Fortunately, for Ed and for all of us, Al has been very personable and cooperative and has seemed to join our spirit of co-marauder-y. I am grateful and humbled to have his help and to be making a friend.

I have shown him this thread and invited him to join us.

Thanx, Al.

I'll post more later and will post pics as I take them thanks to Al's agreeing to allow such close and public view of this rebuild.

I'd like to keep it all here, on this thread, and I'll link to this 'beginning' in the first post.

More to come...