I plan on rebuilding too. Here´s my ideas.
~I´m going to have the block dipped in acid (to clean it), then honed and bored probably .030 over. If I can, I want to try for a stroke of 4.0. I´m going to go ahead and call JE Pistons to get a custom set of pistons. Hopefully I´ll be able to drop my compression ratio to 8.5:1.
~Next will be my crankshaft, I´m going to have it cleaned, lightened and balanced.
~On to the heads. New valves, lifters, springs and new cams with slightly higher lift duration...along with AEM Adjustable cam gears to advance/retard timing.
~I´m going to check on prices for a port and polish of my upper and lower intake runners. I´m getting a new throttle body which I´m going to see if it can be bored out a little extra to make room for more air.
~A custom bent cold air intake will be placed on afterwards.
~I´m buying a GTX manifold from corksport for 180 bucks on which I´m either going to have them find an IHI RB5 turbo and have it rebuilt (for safety reasons) OR I might just have my new brother in law build me a turbo from scratch to fit it onto that GTX manifold. (Depends on which route will be cheaper)
~I´m getting another transmission which I want to tear apart, and take to a shop and have them build me beefier, and somewhat shorter gears. A more durable input/lay/output shafts and I´m dropping on a B&M short throw shifter.
~EGTdude is also working on a custom exhaust for me, a single pipe back to a muffler which then feeds twin exhaust pipes with stainless steel tipping, which will come out my new rear bumper from onderground design ;-)
~I´ll try to find a shop that does custom ECUs with re-programmable chips.
Hopefully after all this is done I´ll have an Escort GTX pushing (at least) 250 hp, 250 lb ft torque out and will give Buick Regal GS´s and Grand Prix GT(P)s a run for their big 3.8s. (yeah i turned my attention on them once I was murdered by a Regal GS. hehe ;-)
