Man, I'm taking a beating here.......The engine was pulled about 8 years ago by the owner. A running engine with 75k on it. The plan was to throw it back in after the bodywork was done, but they decided to do a "little" on it before they put it back in......The cyls were de-glazed, the valves were lapped, the rings were changed, and the oil pump was replaced. He made no claims that the engine was "re-built". They eventually gave up on the project with tons of metal and body work left, which is what I have now.
I bought a leak-down tester, and thought I'd play with it. When I found the results, I simply asked if "break in" would change the crappy results that I got.......Now I've got guys telling me that I have a "piece of ****" etc.
Of coarse, I am eventually going to do the engine up completely, but after spending thousands on the rest of the car, I was hoping to drive it for a year or two then go balls deep over the winter with the engine.
I am planning, however, to tear it down before running it to make sure that nothing done will compromise the future of this engine. A set of gaskets and some plastigauge will be cheap insurance.
Thanks for everyone who responded to the question. Lots of great replies, some, not so much.
