Long story short pretty sure I have a warped block in my 96 lx d16y7 I have a friend that has a spare block and I'm cashing in some vacation time for cash and probably maxing out my credit card to build a motor. I've never built a motor but I have another friend that rebuilds them(stock) for assistance. But anyway planning on boosting it in the somewhat future I'm going to use forged rods, bore it, adjustable cam gear, Nippon racing head gasket, gates timing belt. I may swap to a y8 head depending on what the pull a part has available. And when I boost I will be doing a Mani swap. But while I'm in the motor is there anything else I should do?
I would definitely recommend a y8 head. It's essentially bolting on 30hp, and you'll get better performance out of it compared to the y7 when boosting.
I would also replace the water pump while you have the motor apart. Get a gasket set and replace all of the easy to do seals, such as valve cover, valve stem seals, fuel injector O-ring (though depending on what you do for fuel management, new injectors may come with them), intake manifold gasket, etc.
You'll need a new fuel pump as well, the Walbro 255lph is suitable for most applications, unless you're trying to a ton of power.
I would also get new head studs, as reusing the OEM ones can be bad, especially under boost. I reused them, and they actually started to stretch under boost. Look into ARP ones, very good quality!
