ls1, thanks, and you're not the first person to suggest engine work had been done or the block had been pulled. I got the car in the summer of 02, w/ ~85K miles on it. I rememeber someone else looking at it when i first got it, and thinking that the block had been pulled out for some kind of work. They thought if anything the head had been taken off to be painted. I dont know though. But them being flat top non-turbo pistons was a bad thing, huh?