Thanx for the welcome. Good to be here with people who know what they are talking about and like what they do. Hope to be around for a while.

Shifting is a little rough in low gears and it is running tough at idle (not to meantion the horrible squealing sound of my drive belt) with an occasional drop in idle speed to the point it almost dies. One oil leak is from the cam sensor (I believe) and another appears to be caused by the head gasket.

I've spent the past 3 hours reading through any threads that might be relevant to what I want to do and looking at part sites.

...no, I really have nothing better to do at work.


I'm guessing from all the recommendation that howellautomotive.com is a good place to get what I need. So far I have this much in mind:

- 2.0 Performance Bottom End Kit or the Bottom End Long Rod Kit
are there other things I would have to do to my engine if I got the long rod kit? What will be the difference between 8.6 and 10.5 compression, espically if I want to get a turbo down the road? I want to go with a .020 over-bore...how much will it cost to get that done and what else, if anything, would I need to change do if I over-bored?
- GS-T exhaust
- AFX UDP
- ARP Head Stud Kit
- Iceman CAI

...could that be done under 2 grand including any machining? The CAI and exhaust can wait a paycheck or 3.

All in all, is this a step in the right direction? Am I missing anything important that should be done before something else?