If you're in Portland, you have easy access to Bearing Services. They did my block a couple years ago, and I cannot say enough good about them - You also may not need to sleeve anything. They're capable (or were) of refinishing Alusil properly. If that's not who you're already considering, it may ...

Thanks for the nice summary of options...

You're right, if I sleeve I want to avoid shortcuts. With LA sleeves and Wossner pistons and labor and bearings that puts me 3 to 3.5 k for a working engine (assuming I do the actual rebuild).

I do have that late NA short block available for about $700 ...

The 86 951 I purchased went from a runner to a headgasket job right quick, with milky oil and most of the coolant system clogged with sludgy gunk. I suspect some kind of sealant in a bottle used that lasted just long enough.

What's worse is when I finally got the head off I found cylinder 3 has ...

NG, if I could hijack your thread a little - I just dug into my new to me 86 951 with milky coolant with a plan to change the head gasket, took off the head, and found bore scoring. Now I'm looking at sleeving and am curious about your experience. If you want I can start a separate thread to ...

NG, if I could hijack your thread a little - I just dug into my new to me 86 951 with milky coolant with a plan to change the head gasket, took off the head, and found bore scoring. Now I'm looking at sleeving and am curious about your experience. If you want I can start a separate thread to discuss ...

This is great! I just got a turbo that needs the oil cooler housing resealed and potentially a new head gasket. Nicely done tutorials!

Possibilities to consider with that rpm drop -

Throttle body could have a vacuum leak. Mine didn't but I resealed it anyways, was a fun little project and the kit is available on 944online I think.

Also wonder about your AFM, whether the wiper arm has worn a groove. This is one I haven't checked ...

Why is a manual not an option? Just curious. I taught one of my kids to drive manual in my 944, if in decent shape they're easy manuals to learn on.

So excited for this!

Trying to figure out how to use the tool on my 944 with an old style water pump and no guide rail. If someone could measure the distance from the edge of the belt cover to the rail at 2 points then I could paint a line on the back of the cover to use maybe?