Hello All, I got this car as a project, it had a bad lower plenum leak but runs strong. Turns outs it has a blown head gasket. conpression and leakdown tests confirm the rings and valves are good. I'm just going to pull the motor and clean it up. While out, I was thinking I'd be fairly easy to just do the pulley and rockers. I know a cam is cheaper, but I have very little interest in that. Anybody have advice or cautionary tales? thanks!!

Depends on how far you want to go with it, how much money you have to put into it, if it is your daily driver or not, and if you are in an emissions area.

Personally, I'd leave it be.

Thank you for the feedback! It will be my daily driver and reliability will be a priority so perhaps dicking with it isn't wise.

I think that'* a good idea. Keep using it normally until you can get another car to be your daily.

Time to get years of grime and baked on coolant off this block.

Have fun!

Agreed, leave it be until you can get your hands on another daily driver.

Also remember, any big upgrades to the engine typically require the ability to tune the PCM after changes are made. So you will need a custom programmer.
(NEVER EVER USE CANNED TUNES)