KADE rebuild questions

[BlackZenki82]

so i have question for ya.... being a guy that knows minor mechanical things, brakes, alt starters, nothing too in depth, only thing i've done inside a motor was removing the timing chain guides, and even then i was nervous. the main question at hand is, how hard is it exactly to rebuild the KA, and what are the realistic costs therein. i was thinking of pulling my motor, and DDing my Tahoe while i rebuild the engine myself, but I'm not too sure how to go about doing that...

i know some of you may say, "oh the KA is super easy to rebuild" and that's after your 5th engine, this will be my first ever tear down and rebuild of any engine except a moped when i was 15, and it never ran right after that, still ran though... and i want to try to avoid any war stories. Also my funds are VERY limited at this point due to the fact that i got laid off a little over 5 weeks ago and the job market here sucks balls....

anyways, i want to clean the whole bay up, maybe respray it and have my motor look clean (paint, powder coated) and to remove the emissions stuff correctly....

I'm just cautious because i don't want to end up with a shiny car, with no motor cause i tore it out and f'd it up.... thanks for the time to read all this... i may copy and past it out in other forums cause it about covers most of my questions

so, realistically speaking, for a guy like myself, with minimal internal engine work exp, how hard and long would this "procedure be? remember, i have no job and all the time in the world. i know i want to rebuild it, even though it's currently running, and running fine, and to get it somewhat set up for boost, but at this point i cant afford the forged pieces unless i get em from a part out or "second hand".... do i need all that? do i need it bored? or just honed? decked? milled? and how bout the head? is that easy? I'd like some port/polish work, and some valves, springs, retainers (that stuff I'm pretty sure i can do myself) ....

and i have searched, but get all kinds of conflicting info...

[MxExUx]

Well what condition is the motor in now? How many miles? Does it burn oil? I rebuilt mine about 1 and a half years ago and it is running strong. Actually it just passed smog too. It was the very first motor I rebuilt also. In the end I think it ended up costing me about $800. But I did a pretty comprehensive build including: Full Felpro gasket kit, water pump, all belts, new timing chain rebuild set, new piston rings, new main and rod bearings, clutch, and resurfacing the flywheel. I was pretty intimidated at first but honestly the whole thing was a lot easier than I thought. Fortunately I didn't need any machine work also because I measured all of the tolerances and they were all in spec. Good luck with it man.

[youngun21a]

When I did mine all I needed was my FSM Tools Torque Wrench. Lifter to pull my engine out engine stand,and i didn't know that much about rebuilding and engine I got help from here and the FSM. There is a thred here on how to remove the engine if you having trouble.and if you don't have the funds for forge internals,just buy a master rebuild kit and go from there KA can hold it's on till 300hp with a good tune.