You can tell a lot with a compression test and/or a leak-down test.

It comes down to this: It's just a machine. It's only as good as the weakest part. Skip over that and it's going to fail prematurely. These engines, like anything mechanical, can be built to last, but corners cannot be cut without repercussions.

Case-in-point, jinstv. Once he got his engine back together correctly, with the right parts and the proper techniques, it's lasting and holding up fine. Not to say you and the guys didn't do something right, but "something" wasn't right. Otherwise it wouldn't have failed. Find out what that "something" was.

By the way, I can assemble a lower plenum that will NOT come apart in use. Because I've studied it, identified what fails, came up with a better solution using superior parts and a more solid assembly technique. Could I rebuild an entire 3.5 DOHC and hope it works? Not a chance at my skill level/pay grade. But I could find out how.

Now's the crossroad for this one. It can be done, but will you take the time, effort and most importantly, the money, to make it happen? Not trying to be a d!ck, it just comes across that way sometimes.

John B.