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TLDR: Rebuilding my d17a1, my first time and don't want to mess up. Any suggestions for achieving a slightly stronger than stock build? Stock airbox, exhaust, ecu etc.

Hey guys, I got a 2001 lx that's my baby. Got it to learn manual and learn about cars. Have pretty much done everything imaginable, but she burns about a quart between 5k km oil changes and has a head gasket leak that causes an intermittent misfire in cylinder 2, at idle. It's parked right now as I have an 8th gen si as well. I was planning on building the engine and turbo, but given that I have a kseries car already, I'll save my money for that. I am slowly learning about engine internals, but am still confused. Could anyone please give me some pointers, things to for sure change/check, and brands to go with? My goal with this car is slightly over building it to simply not burn oil, not have a head gasket leak, and go another 300k km (currently at 295k km) with confidence.

What I know so far is new rings, check for warpage on head and block, new bearings, arp studs, hone the cylinders, get the head decked.

If you guys could help shed light on what goes into achieving what I want, any help would be appreciated!

I have done extensive research, so I feel like I know, or can figure out the nuances. But I ask you guys to please treat me as a noob and be as descriptive as possible!

Thanks in advance.