You mean you didn't put in new piston rings too? Damn what a 1/2 ***!!

 

Well, I was going to, but the previous owner loctite'd the old ones in.

 

 

Well, I finished everything up and fired it up for the 1st time in 3 weeks and then took it for a spin or two. My impressions:

The new, solid motor mounts feel great. I can see why everyone is so happy after replacing their mounts.

I see better oil pressure with the synthetic oil after the engine gets up to temp. I'll keep an eye under neath for oil leaks after replace the OPG.

The Delrin solid rack bushings definitely tightened up the steering and responsiveness. I'm probably feeling the new potenza tires as well. Steering wheel is not quite centered, but I'm having the alignment rechecked since the tires wore so much on the insides. I think part of that is the 50mm offset of the 5-spokes wheels though. I have to say the potenza's grip fantastically as well.

New end tank and seal on the radiator seem to be holding up tight and the car is running cool after a spirited highway run in 80F weather and about 30 minutes around town in stop and go.

I am disappointed in the switch to sythetic gear lube in the tranny and diff. I was hoping it would smooth out my 4th to 3rd downshift, which always bites my hand. No such luck. I don't notice any discernable improvement. The old fluid was clean pretty clear and there was little to nothing on the drain magnet before the change.

I advance the timing with the 32vr and it seems to have moved the sweet spot down about 500 rpm or so. A nice change I do believe.

The new short shifter feels great. Crisp and quick from gear to gear.

New clutch master and slave and a slight adjustment to the assist spring and the clutch feels totally different now. No slippage what so ever and the clutch travel is much less and firmer.

Now, one issue that's cropped up from time to time that I'd like to figure out but so far has been beyond my drivability troubleshooting expertise. The car occasionally goes in to limp home mode. It feels like a 4 cyl at low rpm, perks up about 3k or 3.5k, but bogs down if I goose the gas. If I unplug the O2 sensor, it goes away mostly, sometimes requiring me to disconnect the battery. It will still occasionally do this with the O2 sensor unplugged. I'm not sure if I recall correctly, but I thought this problem started after ?I replaced the original sensor with a bosch universal, so I swapped the original back in some time ago with the same results. Any ideas? Does the clue about the O2 sensor lead anyone to suspect anything particular?

Looking forward to SITM now.

 

If the poor running is intermittent, then its probably a loose connection.

Check the king leads (distributor cap to coil) on both sides - easily disturbed, especially when moving the engine around like you do when changing mounts.

 

Got around to checking the poor running issue. Since 88's don't have the ignition monitoring relay, it obviously wasn't that. I checked the connections to each distributor cap and coil, everything was seated correctly. I pulled the coil wires for inspection and found that the driver's side coil wire, at the coil, was corroded and broken. I temporarily replaced it with a cheap one from AutoZone and will order new coils and wires today.

Runs much better now, no hesitation on take off and does not miss out or bog down any more.

 

bad coil connections are known weak spots for these cars.
Glad you found the problem