Hello.
Had an exhaust valve seat drop in cylinder 5 last year in my 03. Took the motor down and had the heads cleaned, decked, valve guides replaced, new valve seals and the seat fixed. Put the motor back together and the car made 515rwp on the dyno on 93 pump gas. Seemed low with the 2.3 whipple and sufficient fuel, headers and other supporting mods. Took the car home for a compression test and cylinder 8 was low/the outlier and probably my source of puffing a little oil out the exhaust. I wasn't surprised as the bottom end has just under a 100k miles and not knowing its past or history, could have been beat on and just neglected. If I pull it apart again, its getting built for 10.5:1, 800whp on e85. When the heads were off for the valve seat issue, i was able to inspect the block and pistons for any issues. I saw nothing concerning. No vertical scoring, excess bearing movement, ring ridge or anything.
To me it sounds like rings are the issue. My question is if I can get some opinions on if I should just plan for .020" over pistons or being that it sound like just rings (imo) if I can get away with a hone and new rings with stock bore 10.5:1 pistons and call it a day? This is in order for me to potentially save on machining time and to plan on getting the correct parts.
Thanks.
Had an exhaust valve seat drop in cylinder 5 last year in my 03. Took the motor down and had the heads cleaned, decked, valve guides replaced, new valve seals and the seat fixed. Put the motor back together and the car made 515rwp on the dyno on 93 pump gas. Seemed low with the 2.3 whipple and sufficient fuel, headers and other supporting mods. Took the car home for a compression test and cylinder 8 was low/the outlier and probably my source of puffing a little oil out the exhaust. I wasn't surprised as the bottom end has just under a 100k miles and not knowing its past or history, could have been beat on and just neglected. If I pull it apart again, its getting built for 10.5:1, 800whp on e85. When the heads were off for the valve seat issue, i was able to inspect the block and pistons for any issues. I saw nothing concerning. No vertical scoring, excess bearing movement, ring ridge or anything.
To me it sounds like rings are the issue. My question is if I can get some opinions on if I should just plan for .020" over pistons or being that it sound like just rings (imo) if I can get away with a hone and new rings with stock bore 10.5:1 pistons and call it a day? This is in order for me to potentially save on machining time and to plan on getting the correct parts.
Thanks.
