I have a little to add.

After a few mos. with the DOA heads and some testing it appears I have 4 leaking intake valves. my COLD comp numbers are below 80 in 2 cyls,below 60 in the other 2 cyls and over 180 in the last 2? In all 4 of the weak cyls I have air blowing out my intake if I hook my compressor up to the comp tester (minus the check valve) @35psi with the respsctive cyls @TDC. The two 180 cyls are tight as a drum when put to the air test. Im guessing maybe Tim decked the crap out of my virgin cyl heads with his "belt sander resurfacing" method creating an interference motor? The other option is bent valves when he brilliantly shipped them back in a box half full of peanuts sitting side by side unwrapped beating the crap out of each other all the way. I had to have several spots repaired in the gasket surfaces when I got them back due to Tims poor excuse for packing and maybe I missed some potential valve damage?

Im kinda stumped to be honest. As the weather cools down I am having starting troubles and lots of missing at low speeds (800-1100 RPM) until the engine is warm. This is what prompted the compression test and air leakage tests.

I recently drove to portland and picked up a set of real OS valves from EB along with a gasket set. Im going to have my 1k$ POS DOA heads redone by the shop I should have taken them to in the first place. The shop just bought a new machine to cut seats so I will be having 1mm OS valves AND seats installed. I should have the truck ready to go by the end of febuary. Tim said he used a 1mm over sized exh valve in the "Turn Key" rebuild I purchased but upon recieving them and checking them out myself with my digital caliper I found that not to be the case. He just used new OE sized valves not oversized ones (have pics if any one wants to see)

I will be sending my Throttle Body out to be bored for $100 (I will let you all know how this goes)

I will be going through my lower intake manifold much the way I did my upper and porting each runner to uniformity in hopes of seeing gains in the mid range as the upper intake cut/port gave me. I will probably run the truck with the stock AFM for now to get a base line from a dyno I found in town. Im sure the stock AFM will be the last and most restrictive bottle neck in the system. Once I get a good baseline number then I will be adding an SMT 6 so I can do away with the stock AFM meter and probably use one of the supra ones. Once I get the SMT 6 in and properly tuned I will pretty much be at the end of the rope.

Im sure it will run better than it does now and to be completly honest Im fairly happy with it except for the crappy cold starting and idling. I cant wait to see how it runs when Im done. I guess the worst that can happen is a bunch of 3.0 performance stuff is up for sale in the classified section and I swap in a 3.4

The ONLY reason Im not swapping in a 3.4 is because Im fairly certain the 3.0 can make a reasonable amount of power. The only thing I dont like is being the test dummy for the project but I do like the tinkering aspect of it. If it works then I will have some proof for all the nay sayers that a 3.0 can make power. If its still lacking then I guess its time to buy a bender and build an intake manifold from scratch <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />