Well, the head swap has been completed for a week or so now. I have replaced my machine shop stage 1 (whatever that is) ported head with 88 tbi cam, back cut and 3 angle valves. I replaced it with a head ported by mpgmike. The valves where back cut and 3 angle as well. It was shaved to give a CC of 46 to bring the compression up to 8.6 :1. Two Singh grooves per combustion chamber where done as well as grooves in the intake runner Mike calls Power Lynz. I also cryoed the head as well.

I have not yet made it to the dyno. I messed up the valve seals and I am waiting to put on some positive seal ones.

I have noticed that I am blowing IC hoses for some reason. The last time the hose blew off I realized the non-turbo power was way improved. It use to be a complete dog with out the turbo climbing some hills, but now there is no problem what so ever.

The biggest thing is the EGT temps. I have seen a low of 625F at idle with most of the time idle at 700F. Around town I see a low of 775F to 850F. Highway I see 875F to 950F up big hills. Boosting, is a little iffy. The temp drops so quick that by time I see the gauge I see the needle is dropping. The most I have seen is just over 1000F at 12psi being on it for what seemed like a while.

Another thing I noticed is my part throttle knock retard now behaves differently. I can still get knock, but it is much harder to do so. At the moment, I really do not want to make to many comments about that as I am burning oil via my valve seals which will have an effect.

I am pretty sure (though not degreed to be 100%) that my cam timing is close to stockish now. The vacuum is now up from 15 to 17ish. May still be a little retarded from the head milling. Timing was at 12 degrees but I have since lowered it to 10 and will try lower yet. The idea being is that the info on Singh's site and other forums, the grooves are suppose to speed up the combustion process. If that is correct, then people suggest (Mike and others on the turbobuick forum) that more power will be gained by RETARDing the iginition timing. I will probably play with that on the dyno to see what shows up.

I have noticed I can shift into 5th much earlier like around 50km/hr without any problem and still be able accelerate with out any lugging. I can do 40km/hr, but would not in daily driving. Average mileage so far looks to be similiar, but I have been on the gas way more than normal and doing more highspeed highway miles. Though there are parts of my driving where the navigator mileage is up for sure over before.