Well, as the line says, its up and running! Here is what I did to her:

1) New standard-sized rod bearings
2) New gaskets - upper and lower intakes, oil pan, valve cover, valve cover grommets, injector o-rings, and other little things.
3) Media-blasted lower intake, valve covers, throttle body, a few brackets here and there...painted most of that either red or black, with exception of valve covers...those I clearcoated.
4) New ignition system. Plugs, wires, ignition module and new coil packs.
5) Double-flushed the oil. Its amazing how oil can turn black in just a few mins.

Now then, even though it'* running, it isn't without issues. It'* still got a knockin' noise (idle is fine...but from off-idle on and if a load is present it still knocks). I have a feeling the bearings are still undersized (I did follow up on the torque settings and *should* be ok). The */C coupler seemed fine when I had the assembly off, so I doubt that is making the noise. Could still be the harmonic balancer, as I could not get a definitive answer the last time on what was causing my noise woes. The trans still slips too, though I have yet to change the fluid and filter in it.

But it is running, and moveable at least.

You probably won't see another 30 days. You failed to turn your crank at the same time.

You MUST machine the crank when doing this, then install oversized bearings to make up the difference. The damage to the crank bearing journals will quickly destroy the new bearings.

Congrats. Did you have the crankshaft checked/measured for the new bearings?

I'd tear it back down and do it right....

It'll never last the way it is.

Correct. It'* a gauranted failure at this point.

I was hoping to get it running well enough to last until I was able to locate an S2 to swap in there. Wilren, you said in an earlier post that dropping the crank wouldn't entail dropping the transmission, but I can't see how w/o removing either the engine or transmission (if I had my own place I would have no problems doing such a thing, but as said earlier the apartment complex doesn't allow major work like that), so this was the route I went. Now that the motor is all buttoned up on top it won't take me nearly as long to do just the bottom end again.

From my research the crankshafts are the same between */C and non-*/C, so tomorrow I may go to the junkyard and pull one and have it ground down, then have a shop swap them out (along with all the bearings of course).

What does the FSM'* say about the final torque specs for the rod caps? I got mine from Autozone, I want to say 20 plus 30 degrees, which is what they are torqued at.

Also, I have a leak at the EGR stovepipe (going to the EGR solenoids)...is there a gasket here that can go bad? Or did I just not tighten it down?

I know the repair I made wasn't ideal, it would be a bandaid and learning experience at best, but as said earlier I have to really watch what I do around here.,