Head gasket replacement
 

Hello all. It's been a while since I've been around here - but I think I have been on this board a LONG time ago. I am the original owner of a '99 Z28 with 150,xxx miles. A few months ago, I noticed something was odd with the cooling system. As long as I kept moving, the temp was fine in its normal position. However, when the car idled while not moving, the temp needle moved up just a hair, just about to the middle line, and both fans would eventually come on and would never go off. The temp would never get TOO high as far as I could tell, and the needle never moved completely past the middle line on the gauge. I wasn't too worried about it since I'm usually never in stopped traffic, and the temp was not getting all that high.


So recently, I had some time and decided to start poking around. I determined that my thermostat was bad due to the bottom radiator hose being cold when the fans were on and the thermostat should have been open. I pulled the old thermostat and tested it - sure enough, it was bad and stuck closed. So I got the new stat installed and refilled/bled the cooling system (which I've done a few times over the life of the car). During the bleeding of the cooling system, I noticed something very bad - the car was hot and had been running for a while, but there was still steam coming from the tailpipes. Smelled the steam - sure enough, sweet smelling. Crap. It's not a huge amount of steam like I've seen on other cars with a blown head gasket and it's almost un-noticeable - but now I've noticed it. There was also a small puddle underneath each exhaust tip after the ~10 minute idling session to bleed the system.


I've ordered a head gasket testing kit from amazon to test for exhaust gas in the radiator - should be here tomorrow. But I'm pretty sure I'm burning coolant. I guess it got hot enough at some point (not sure when) to damage the head gasket.


At this point, the car is not my daily driver - I have a garage to park it in and can let it sit there indefinitely while I work on it or whatever. Here's my question - assuming my test comes back positive for exhaust gas in the radiator, is head gasket replacement a task you would recommend someone to take on? I'm fairly mechanically competent, I do all my own maintenance on the car, but I'm definitely no mechanic, and I've never been down as far as the heads. Is there a good step by step write-up anywhere that you would recommend? I have a service manual, and I will use that, but I would like some supplemental guides that highlight potential pitfalls if possible. I'd like to do all the research I can before starting. And finally, what are the odds that it's not the head gasket, and actually something worse, like a cracked block?


Any recommendations or guidance is welcome. Thank you.