Thread: should i rebuild a stock motor?

ok guys im going to get stock l36 motor and do a top swap and few other things...... cam, heads,meth,10:1 compression, blah blah blah. more then likly the motor i will be getting will have 100k to 125k on it. im wondering if i should replace the rod and main bearings in it? and if i take the crank out and match all the rods and pistons to the same weight will it effect over all balance to where i would have to rebalance it? how much does it cost to rebalance the rotating assembly? (50% balance). or would i be better off to leave it alone and bolt everything up and beat the pi$$ out of it? also i thinking of opening up the main bearing oil holes so there all the same size and add the intense oil filter relocation kit so i can adjust oil psi.
im on a budget but if it makes it last in the long run ill put down the cash to a point! no forged internals here.

thanks
chris

the only bad item in the bottomend are the pistons... they shatter.

true isnt normally due to kr or your fuel trims being off?

not necessarily. sometimes you just cant get rid of the knock by throwing more fuel at it to drown it out. sometimes youre running too small of a pulley and making too much boost. sometimes youre running too much timing. sometimes there is "false knock" which is typically when some part of the engine is hitting something else.