[kger]

Thanks again for all the thoughts. I'm 99% sure I'll tear it all the way down and address everything that needs to be - do it right once and drive it hard for another 200k which is basically forever for a weekend/fun car.

The next big fork will be whether I can rent the back half of my "garage neighbor's" tandem garage that they currently don't use. We have a tandem garage next to theirs (think one garage that is two cars wide and two cars deep with 2 separate doors, in the city with no real usable outdoor space):

-If I can't, I will have to farm out almost all of the work. Maybe I can drop the engine and strip it down to the long block in a few days and at least get that experience and save on some labor costs.

-If I can, then I have to decide how much of the work I want to do. The extra space will be fairly small - 2 car spots side-by-side for all the work, including storing the SC while out of commission.

My initial thought is that maybe I'll drop the engine and disassemble everything, then send everything to a reputable shop to clean, inspect/measure, and replace/assemble the long block. During that time I'll go through the CIS top to bottom and handle a few random things (shocks, fuel lines). Then when the rebuild is done, I'll do the clutch, reinstall the CIS, and reinstall the motor.

I think that plan gets me dirty enough, saves some dough, and get's things done quicker with full confidence in the engine build. It also saves me from having to do most of the cleaning which could be a problem in a shared garage with a just OK drain.

What do people think about that? Or, should I just man up and DIY the whole thing if I can get the garage space? How many hours total am I looking at all in, 150?

Any SF Pelicans come to mind who might be interested in lending a hand and enjoying a few free cold ones + pizza/burritos?