I have a 98 Mark VIII engine that I pulled from the junk yard that appears to be in excellent shape. I think it has around 80,000 miles on it. I took off the valve covers and timing chain cover and everything looks great. When I take off the heads tomorrow what should I look for to see if the engine needs I rebuilt. I'm going to look for cross hatching and a grove at top dead center for each piston. I would like to have the block hot tanked and honed but would like to avoid boring out the cylinders and replace the rings on the stock pistons. I want to shoot for around 350-400 rwhp n/a with c heads and the 99-01 cobra intake.
Also can I use a thinner head gasket than stock to raise the compression? Is there another cheap way to raise compression?
One more thing- how strong is the mark viii crank shaft in the 98. I know its not nearly as strong as its cobra cousin but if I replaced the stock rods and pistons what kind of power can the stock crank hold up to?
Also can I use a thinner head gasket than stock to raise the compression? Is there another cheap way to raise compression?
One more thing- how strong is the mark viii crank shaft in the 98. I know its not nearly as strong as its cobra cousin but if I replaced the stock rods and pistons what kind of power can the stock crank hold up to?
