I picked this up from a junior member here. He had the cylinder head off of it. Among other parts. The diagnosis was it was smoking really bad and he and his mechanic could not figure out why. The day after I brought it home I pulled the engine out. It appeared the stock 11b was going out as the turbine wheel and housing were covered in oil. Upon tear down of the engine I found two broken pistons. The middle ringlands had cracked. The crank appeared in pretty good shape and the whole car seemed all original. The only modifications I found were the boost controller and a fart can on the back of the car.
I promptly got some parts on order that I could not get in town. I rebuilt the throttle body, put new seals in the transmission, installed a new clutch master and slave cylinder for good measure. My friend and I then proceeded to do all the machine work in house for the engine. I replaced the valve stem seals, resurfaced the cylinder head, honed the cylinders, resurfaced the block and polished the crank. We did all of this in house at his dad's automation machine shop. It is much much nicer not having to pay for machine work.
I was only able to find N/A G4CR pistons in stock bore as stock replacement parts. So in went the 9.3:1 pistons. The rings were Hastings Rings. I then installed a new water pump, new timing belt tensioner, reused all the pulleys and installed all new seals on the front and rear of the motor. DNJ standard bearings were used for both the rod and main bearings. While everything was out I had the local axle place work some magic and freshen up the old worn out stockers.The 13g I bought ended up being a dud for the stock 11b replacement. So after a few hiccups with me damaging the original oil pump housing and the craigslist replacement having an almost 4 inch crack in it we took it for a drive to find the dead turbo. But it ran great. So I picked up another 13g and stabbed it in there this weekend.
There is still a small oil leak but with no real miles on it I took the car to the in-laws last night with my fiance. I replaced the fart can with a small piece of straight pipe. The car is still very quiet though as the rest of the stock exhaust and converter are still there. She absolutely loved the car. Or as much as you might expect after 12 years of me obsessing over these things. She was glad she could hear me and carry on a normal conversation. Her only complaint was no air conditioning. But this car never had it from the factory. But after yesterdays drive and a small one today so another member Jaysmirage could take it for a drive with a working turbo all is well. The car runs like a champ for being all stock. The 13g is as low as I can get it right now. But 75 miles on the new engine and it just runs like a champ. Super excited and I really hope I can start to settle down and keep this one around for a while. Even thinking about making a trip to Arkansas in it if I do not take the truck on a trailer when I go visit my family.
But here it is, another gem saved. Maybe the fifth one is a charm.