The first engine serial number with steel cylinder linings is 0008181043, which translates to August 18, 2000. (borrowed from a testpoint thread) Although you have it torn down enough by now to where you can see whether or not you have the linings.

The conventional wisdom is if a nikasil engine has made it this far, it should be OK. Gasoline composition was the issue back then and now we have different blends.

 

Thanks for the response. I won't worry too much about Nikasil issues, then.

However, I was reading another post from someone encountering a locked up engine, and one of the posts talked about being able to turn over the engine with a 3/8 stubby wrench. My engine takes a strong pull on a 24" breaker bar to rotate the crank. I just assumed this was a normal function of all the bearings and 8 pistons moving in the bores.

Should I actually be concerned about this? There was talk of bottom end issues with this car. I have squirted oil in the bores to keep thigs a bit lubed, but now I wonder about more problems.

TC