Hurt Motor Help, Thanks for sharing your knowledge Options

[gregrobbins]

I recently picked up a 74 2.0L that looked real clean, but had not been on the road for 2+ years. Many of you know the car from Tim Jones web page, it is the Bumble Bee. Since it had not been drive for awhile, it ran rough when fire up.

First step was to take it to Don Jackson in Phoenix to get a tune up and make sure it would pass emissions. They said they felt the MPS was bad, hence my post yesterday. During the tune up they felt there was an exhaust leak. So new header gaskets. Still the leaking problem. They next did a compression test and report the following:

#1 20% blow by rings and valve
#2 15% blow by rings
#3 10% blow by
#4 8% blow by

I have a some idea what this means but.... They are recommending at the minimum a top end rebuild and they are pushing hard for a switch to carburation. And they are saying the best thing is a total rebuild ($6000+) if the case and heads are good, more if not.

As the care is an LE, I really want to keep the FI system. A spare 6K is an issue too.

I am handy enough to do small things, but don't know if I could do a rebuild. More like I would pull the motor and take/ship it.

I have gotten lots of good advice from the members here, and would appreciate your thoughts, suggestions, etc.