After driving my 85 Laser XE TI for 12 years I thought it was time to get something else. Since the Subaru STi WRX was not yet out in North America (everywhere else for years but not here!!) I thought I would go to my local auction (http://www.michenerallen.com) and see what was there. It also happens to be Canada's largest public vehicle auction and a place I have gotten some very good deals from in the past!
Well, a 88 Chrysler Daytona Shelby was in the line up. It looked pretty rough because of the bad paint. The body looked great though. It ran not too bad. Figured because of its place in the line up and the bad paint apperance it would go cheap. At this point in time, I knew nothing of the car other than it was suppose to be better than my Laser. Well, we where watching it go through the lane and was thinking, "300$ is pretty cheap!". By time I jump in with my bid, it was at 400$ so my bid was 450$. I was shocked and surprised when the other fellow bidding stopped at 400$ and I got it for 450$!! I did expect him to go higher and I would not have. Oh well. So on December 7, 2002 I picked up myself a 88 Daytona Shelby Z and had no clue what I was getting into.
The drive home was fun. The boost would come on very strong, but then the car would violently lurch. From my expereince with the Laser I thought this was overboost. When I get home, my best friend and I took a look underneath the hood closer and saw a bunch of vaccum hoses unhooked. Not seeing the vaccum diagram on the hood, I got online, did a google and found the Allpar fourms. A fellow by the name of Butch N. helped me determine that the vaccum to the waste gate selonid was not hooked up. I do believe that was after I had the car checked out at my local shop. The shop suggested putting it back in the auction. I am of the mind I bought it for 450$ I can afford to put a few dollars into it. They did tell me the head gasket was shot.
A week later it is in my friend's very large garage and we are ripping the head off to do the gasket.
Mopar Performance Turbo II head gasket. The only one to use and cheaper than the regular head gasket, go figure!
We were in for a surprise. Not only was the gasket shot but a valve was missing a small piece.
It is hard to see in the picture but the second valve from the left is missing a piece towards the outside.
Now, we decide that the whole engine should come out and check out the piston/cyclinder for damange.
The missing piece found a home embeded in the side of the piston!!
After much searching I found a shop to rebuild the head. After they take it apart they tell me they can not use it. Or if they did it would get very expensive to fix. Where the cam sits was all gouged up and they said looked like it ran with out oil or very dirty oil. (I did an oil change when I got home and when we dropped the pan, maybe 150km later, it was black as tar.) So to Pick a Part we go. 20$ later we have our turbo head and dropped it off. We also grabbed a 88 TBI cam to replace my messed up one. Suppose to be a bit better than the turbo cam.
By this point I have been discovering a lot of Daytona info on the web and was getting right into wanting to do the car up right. A large help during the rebuild and ever since is the forum at alpar.com.(Allpar Daytona Forum) I did want to go for the oversized valves and full meal deal for the head, but I was dragging my feet about it. I wanted to see what it was like first before I started getting carried away. So I decided to just stick to a mild port of the head, with back cut and 3 angle valve job. Had the intake and exhaust "cleaned up" as well, not ported. I also decided to get an underdrive pulley. Would not be any easier than now to put it on the car.
Mild head port - intake Mild head port - exhaust
Well, the shop cleans up the block, decks it, bored it .20 over (because of wear, not the valve piece floating around I was told) I get it back bare. This was somewhat of a shock to me as my friend and I left a lot of items on the block including bolts etc. so we knew where they went. After a brief discusion they take it back and a day or two later I have a block with the crank, pistons, and intermidate shaft installed and a box of a lot of loose parts. Picked up the head at this time too. Expected more parts to be on it as well, but wanted to get it home so I just took it.
The complete head with 88 TBI cam installed.