Had a cooling issue and eventually had white smoke come out of the exhaust when warm. Compression test showed 195 psi on all cylinders when cold. I assumed i had exhaust getting into the coolant, but didnt have the tester for that. I decided to not pull the motor, and just pull the head where the engine sat and do a headgasket anyways, since I dont have any service record of it being done and i believe it to be the culprit. Once the head was off and the intake manifold separated, i think the problem was the intake gasket. Where the one coolant passage passes between the head, through the intake and to either the heater core or throttle body, there was some damage and coolant droplets. New head gasket, new intake gasket, new coolant hoses from the radiator, a steep hill to burp the cooling system and heater core, and its been trouble free.
Went to another LKQ and picked up a like new main carpet for $8, along with door panels off an 03-05. I had always wanted to the double din conversion and was able to find a good bezel with brackets for $10. Need to trim the mounts on the HVAC controls to bring it flush to the bezel; the one on the coupe is pushed back just a little due to the design.Its nice having the back up camera feature finally in this thing. I re-powder coated the red under the hood with a texture red, its more fitting than the illusion red in my opinion. Still want to do a few more pieces like the strut bar. Body work to come, but the car drives great now. Not bad for 223k miles.