[MrTibbs]

Hi people,

I've more or less got the engine out of my parts car and am planning to rebuild it and put it in my car which I'm going to do a lot of work on when my garage is free.

I got the engine running when I got the parts car (it had a dead DME). All sounded OK with no worrying noises or anything immediately obvious, but I didn't run it for long. At that time I didn't have a compression tester, and I've since taken the intake off and stripped the car so I can't get it running to test the compression.

The car has 118k miles on it, and had sat for about a year I think before I got it. When I drained the oil it looked OK, with no obvious sign of coolant in it. Similarly, when I drained the coolant there was no sign of oil.

My question is really what would people recommend I do when rebuilding the engine. I'm not after huge power gains (though any obvious easy improvements would be good), just want to do what's needed to make a good solid engine I don't need to worry about. I'm planning on giving it a good clean, polish the intake manifold and paint the cam tower as well for some engine bay bling.

My list of things to do so far is:
* Belts and rollers
* Rod bearings
* Valve stem seals and lap valves
* Head, intake and exhaust gaskets
* Rear main seal
* Piston rings (are these a good idea in all circumstances, or just if they have too much clearance?)
* clean all grounds, replace charging and starting wires, and add an additional ground
* Use the best motor mounts or replace if can't find 2 in spec
* Cap, rotor, and spark plug wires

Any thoughts? Particularly from those of you who've rebuilt one of these engines. I guess it'll become clearer what needs doing once I start getting it apart.

Mike