What's a budget for 3.2 rebuild?
 

3.2 engine has compression of 185 across the board but blows blue on start up, kinda bad.
Likely valve time, what kind of budget to fix this.

Runs nice and doesn't smoke when warm.

I can pull motor but would not do engine repair myself.

Stem seals... I'd run it if all else is fine.

You can replace stem seals without pulling the engine apart.

How expensive is this and how can one determine that's the problem?

The weak spot in a 3.2 is the guides. They're usually gone by 85 to 120k miles. 185# is excellent but after 25 years or better a little work can be justified.
Bruce

The $5k number (USD) gets thrown around here occasionally for a top-end job on a 3.2l, but if you're not going to do the job yourself, you should probably be talking to the shops that you plan to have do the work to get a feel for what they'd actually charge you.

Doing almost all the work myself, I'll be significantly less than that for my 3.2 'budget' rebuild (will post costs when I'm finished soon, more like $2-3k), but mine just needed head studs. Mine had good compression and wasn't burning much oil at all, so I'm not having the heads rebuilt. Rebuilding heads would have added probably another $800-1000 in parts and machine shop labor.

Keep in mind that the one-thing-leads-to-another pull is strong when the engine is out. Valve guides leads to valve job leads to head studs leads to rings leads to bearings, clutch, flywheel, bottom end, chains..... I did the work myself (except the heads and cylinders which went out to a machine shop) and while I haven't added it up, but I'm sure it was in the 5K range.

GK

Complete valve job if you bring the heads to them is about $1,000 when all is said and done.

Add to that $500 of seals and $200 for lubes, and $300 for incidentals and you are looking at $2,000 if you do the labor.

Refrain from the while-in-there symptoms.

I just want to get prepared, mentally. Car runs good when warm and doesn't smoke much but that initial start up is where it's at.

I can pull motor and strip it but after that I will leave to the more technical experts.

Lapkritis mentioned stem seals, could it be simple as that. This car has not been driven much in the last several years.

You have to determine why the valve stem seals have failed, is it simply wear or do you have too much play in the stem to valve guide fit? If your valve guides are worn and you only replace the valve stem seals, then in short order, you will have the same problem again.

Opinions vary on how common the worn valve guide problem is, but I would bet that you have it. Very easy to check, with a dial indicator on the stem, move the valve side to side. The spring has to be removed though.

The clearance spec per Wayne's book is
Intake= 0.030 - 0.057 mm
Exhaust = 0.050 - 0.077 mm

Max wear limit is 0.15mm intake and 0.20mm exhaust.

The above clearances in Wayne's book are derived from what seems like incorrect descriptions "Bore D2" and "Shaft d2", but the clearance spec looks correct and the max clearance spec is the same as specified in the Bently book.

With tired stem seals you may also notice blue smoke on decel...

A puff of blue after being parked for a couple days or more is normal for many due to the case filling with oil from the tank and leaking past the rings.

+1

Mine was badly worn after 80k, engine was very strong but a head stud broke. Didn't smoke much but exhaust guides was still pretty bad. Intake was OK.

The 3.2 has dilavar head studs, I would change those before they break. It's a time bomb.

The 5k figure is realistic, I think, if your not doing it yourself.