Advice on 2.7L
 

I have acquired a 2.7L with 80,000 miles since a full rebuild. It has Mahle Euro-Carerra pistons/Nikasil cylinders with 80K on them. The engine ran fine except for a valve problem. I current have the heads at the machine shop being "refreshed". I am wondering:

1. Should I split the case to just check things inside, or am I better off leaving it as is?

2. Should I re-ring the Pistons?

My current thinking is NO on 1 and YES on 2. On 1 there isn't anything wrong with the bottom end and the bearings have lots of useful life on them. On 2, 80,000 miles is probably half the useful life of the rings, so it may be worth replacing them as long as the new ones reseat OK.

I'd appreciate advice from the board.

All of these are good questions, none of which I have the answers to. But since I now have a modified 2.7, I will eagerly watch this thread.

My initial question is more a hypothetical: if the engine runs fine, why split the case? If the rebuild is good (80,000 miles is nothing to dismiss since 2.7s were notorious for lasting no longer than 50,000 miles), I would think all is good if the motor is not smoking or using excessive oil.

Besides which, isn't a 2.7 case, particularly a mag. case, fairly hard to resassemble once taken apart? It seems to me that they need line boring and other little processes that an aluminum case would not.