Engine Overhaul

My child is sick, one of her rods is starting to fall apart, I have a few options, I can rebuild it with performance parts (can't afford that one), stock rebuild (why?), or build up the bottom half, and then later the top, this is what I want to know is feasible or not, if a stock rebuild on the heads will withstand a 2nd gen crank forged pauter rods, and ross 11:1 compression ratio pistons, I don't see why not, but I've never rebuilt an engine before, seen it, helped with it, but not done it myself. Which brings up my next two questions (yes greedy with the questions I know, sorry guys), I need to see if I can find a master rebuild kit, I can't find one anywhere, basically everything I would need in the heads, valve guides, valve seals, valve seats, valves, springs, the works, and my bearings, gaskets, seals, rings etc....If anyone knows where I can find on, let me know pretty please I would greatly appriciate it. Then my last question for this morning, is there anything really special or pain-in-the ass-ish that I need to know and/or watch out for and double triple check type stuff???? Like I say this is my first engine rebuild by myself, and I am good with a book, but the book dosen't tell you some things. Thanks Guys.

If you are going to do a rebuild like that I wouldnt do it myself if I were you. You run the risk of missing something very small and bam all your money down the drain.

If you do some searches on here and on www.3si.org and check out some of the links in the FAQ, I think you will find most everything you need.

Is there anywhere I can get a good engine at a lower price, because that is why I wanted to rebuild it myself, I can take the time and do it right, but all the places I have found have used engines (not rebuilt) No thanks, or they look like they are bust-em-out and ship 'em rebuilders, and they will probably break also, so if there is any reputible rebuilds out there let me know if you could. Thanks

Like I said if you check out 3si.org you should find some. I know there was one guy who was offering rebuilds for like 2k, and ross pistons were optional for a bit extra. Also dynamicracing.com sells shortblocks.

If you're going to get it rebuilt and you want it built for performance wise, first thing i would do for the bottom end is just use some used stock rods and crankshaft from a 93+ because they are already forged and hold lots of power, then put in the pistons that you want. The bottom end is not bad to rebuild, just make sure you get a machine shop to take care of your piston holes. As far as the heads go, those can probably be quite tricky, and unless you know what your doing, i would have someone do your heads (Dynamic Racing).

thats what i did at first on my first gen. i just built the bottom half... it makes no dif and doesnt help the horsepower...
i threw rod bearing and got metal throughout my engine so it was time for a rebuild...
i wanted to build it but the heads cost 3x as much to be built than the crank case. so i just built the bottom half... it didnt help much on horse power except the fact that i had a bigger bore... but that away i didnt have to drop complete block to get the rest built... so really it doesnt matter... my engine did great.

your going through the same exact situation i did

Yeah thats what I figured also, I have been calling some machine shops in the area and they can do it for $1600 fully assembled and all the machine work done, gasket kit, recon. rods and crank. Does this sound like an alirght price or would I be getting bent over?

sounds like a great price! thats cheap.

with a built bottom end, your not going to find much performance gains, at least any that you will feel, unless you end up buying something like ray pampena's 3.7 Liter stroker kit. What you will find though is that your bottom end can take a bigger beating without predetonation which give you potentially more power. Your best power gains will come from upgraded turbos and work done to the heads.