When to rebuild my engine?

[Doug_Guilds]

I have about 20 races, give or take a couple of nights, on the engine. Total seal gapless rings and non coated bearings, crank and rods are balanced but I don't run a balancer yet. Should I go ahead and re ring and put new main and rod bearings in for next season?

[84Dave]

Doug...... have you warmed up the engine for a few minutes, shut it down, and run a leak-down test on all cylinders? Regarding the bearings, has your hot oil temp & oil pressure remained about the same mid-to-last part of your race season? Estimated number of miles practiced/raced during your season? We got a bit of a surprise on a 4-cylinder a team-mate was running this year. About 2/3 of the way through the 15-race season, the cylinder leak-down % began to rise a couple of points. We decided to try the 'RESTORE' product in the oil to season's end. Shocker! The leak-down decreased to nearly the same % we measured 2-3 races into the season, after the rings had 'seated'! I didn't expect that positive result from an off-the-shelf automotive product. -Dave-

[Spbulldog]

Why not? Gonna have the down time anyway. Better to start on a fresh motor than realize 2 or 3 races in your loosing power because of wear. And that "restore" stuff....stay away. Yes it can bring comp. back up but at a price. If it's sealing wear up u gotta know it's also clogging oil passages and oil screens too!

[Doug_Guilds]

Think I will just go ahead and pull it apart. I am interested in what everything looks like anyways. I didn't do a leak down test but the oil pressure is the same as it was at the beginning of the season. But I have a pan or seal leak in the back and after thinking about it I want to fix that anyways. So out it will come and new stuff going in.

[Foghorn]

I would stay away from all those "Snake Oils". It never hurts to freshen things up. It beats the hell out of waiting till it's too late.

[car62]

i usually go about 60 nights between freshen up's..hell we have 1 shortblock that has over 180 nights on it,but last time we ran it,it had some blowby

[supertruck]

while you've got it apart, go ahead and spring for one of the ATL dampers-expensive but worth it. Added one to my motor 2 seasons ago on the advice of a smart guy on this forum. The difference in the smoothness of the motor could be felt first time out. at the end of season pull down there was next to nothing for wear showing on the rods and mains. Thrust was .001 above what we started the season with.

[84Dave]

In my experience, tough to beat the ATI damper. In the long run, well worth the $$$'s! -Dave-

[Doug_Guilds]

Well here is the dilemma I have with the ATI Damper. I am not planning on staying in 4 cylinders after next season. If all goes as planned I will be moving into Sport Mods since the RWD 4 cylinder cars are declining and the Sport mods are booming in our area.