Now that the timing cover is done I'm working on adapting the manifold to fit the fuel injector block, the plan is to plug the bolt holes, weld the plugs in, then drill for the new ones. It looks like the bolt holes on the underside of the manifold will either end up a s slots or I'll add some mater...

Thing is great! Love to see where it started, I dig the bumperless look, don't think I would ever have the nerve to remove mine in this municipality...

Oh yeah, a shot from the front please.

I got the timing chain cover mod half done, cut out the bits and had my buddy weld it up, he commented on how nice the casting is compared to most automotive stuff, no voids or impurities. Its at the machine shop right now, should be done this week and hopefully I'll get the bottom end buttoned up s...

I have 4 unopened bottles of MT90 I bought by accident if anyone wants 'em, $30 plus shipping.

Got my used head, looks much better than the others, cam journals aren't pristine but certainly an improvement. I took it apart - told myself I wasn't gonna do that, but I already have some new valve stem seals, so what the hell, gonna lap the valves a little too. Valves before and after oven cleane...

Cool, I'll keep an eye out for the later models. On closer inspection the exhaust valves on the heads I have are pretty worked, I gave a typical one a quick lap job, not sure I left much of the coating and the sealing area is huge - but perhaps that's how it's designed? The options I'm considering: ...

Any reason I'd want one of the turbos I found in the yard? I was planning on using the one I've got, a regular 900 unit from an '88, in great shape. All 1999 SE 9-5's, the Aero was missing its snail.

Oh goody, that is the answer I was hoping for, guess I'll replace seals too while I'm at it, they're in the budget, 8 @ $26 valves not so much... EDIT: Got the valves out yesterday, pleased to note very little play in the guide and no pitting or anything on the sealing surfaces, any advice on cleani...

Spent some time at the Upull on Saturday, pulled three valve covers but didn't find any journals that looked a whole lot better than what I already have, cars were pretty complete though, usually the turbos go missing the day they show up. Managed to find some cams in a '99 9-3 so it wasn't a total ...

Awesome, a ton of 9-5's there. I'll look for the nicest journals I can find, definitely the most affordable thing at the yard, I think a head is still $30. How bad do the pictured ones look to you?

I drew a template to cut some material to fill in the hole at the timing cover, careful-er forum reading would've likely clued me into the fact that I need not one but two bits, a second piece cantilevers off the lowside towards the exhaust manifold. Also examined the heads I'd collected, the cam jo...

Good point, thinking about it now tilting the head down onto the guide certainly makes the most sense, and I've got a couple of sets of the bolts already.

So got the block bored out, just left it and the pistons at the machine shop, presumably they did it correctly...One thing I noticed is they put a bit of a chamfer at the top, kinda eats into the sealing surface a little, probably not a big deal, guessing the flat itself is about .050" . I'll p...

Ok so that's .0012" or so, is that right for the turbo application? Seems like turbo motors frequently get something in the .003" range, don't have my Bently handy but somewhere on the internets it is claimed that it recommends .0008-.0025". Gonna drop pistons off at the machine shop ...

So my new pistons will definitely be upping the C/R some, I'll make some unscientific measurements to get a ballpark number. I'm gonna take them down to the machine shop tomorrow and have the bores bored, any recommendations for clearance?