If this belongs somewhere else, please feel free to scold away and I will move it to its rightful place.
The good: Over the holidays, after much preparation on my part, my family and I were able to enjoy an epic journey north from San Diego to my home town area of San Luis Obispo. There we had much holiday cheer with family and friends. The day after Christmas we headed east to Yosemite for a 3 day hangout of hiking and refueling our souls. We wanted to head east over the Sierra Nevada's to connect with I-395 south but to our disappointment, ALL the roads heading east-west within a days drive are closed throughout the winter. Our destination was Zion, Utah. We begrudgingly headed south back through Fresno to I-99 south to Bakersfield. There we took the 58 east through Tehachapi to our eventual rest stop in Phelan at my best friends parents house. After a day of rest and touch-ups on the bus, we started out towards Zion to spend the new year. Of course there was a stiff head wind the ENTIRE way. But man was it worth it. Unfortunately my little girl got sick and we had to cut our trip a couple days short to get home. Good thing we left when we did. As she proceeded to spend the next 36 days in the ICU. She's good now, finally. (I told you this was the abridged version.)
So 1825 miles later I was ecstatic! Bluey The Wonder Slug actually made the trip! And with (almost) ZERO hiccups! Which now brings us to...
The bad: Now that we were home and he sat in the garage while we attended to my daughter in the hospital, he was sounding a bit rough. Fast forward a couple weeks and some around town/short highway driving and he is down right lagging! After a quick compression check I confirmed my fears. Cylinders 1 and 2 we reading in the 60 PSI range. So, I parked him and began the tear down process.
This pretty much brings you up to today. The heads are off, ready to head to the shop for freshening up. Now I am staring at a mostly bare engine and wondering "what else should I do so this thing is reliable and I don't have to do this again anytime soon? And won't completely kill my already hurting pocket book?"
This is where you all (and Colin) come it! If you were in my position, and money WAS an object, what would be the top things you would make sure you did?
I already have a complete gasket kit, clutch kit, engine compartment seal, tune up stuff, can't remember what else showed up at the door recently...I would really like to do something about my tattered exhaust/heating system but outright replacing all that would basically require all my limbs and my unborn grandchildren. Other than cleaning the snot out of it, should I do anything with the engine/cylinders? Anything else I am not thinking of?
Thanks for all your time and efforts!
Some illustrations for your viewing pleasure...
The fun begins!
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Bluey, literally losing his $hit.
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All torn down
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