Gerg007

Alright, so this started when I noticed first that I had coolant in my oil. Great, blown head gasket. I was forced to drive it the 6 mile round trip to work the next day. It ran fine with what seemed like no noise, however when I got home and pulled the car in my garage, I noticed a pungent burning smell almost as if burning metal. (on top of the smell it already had from oil leaking onto the exhaust.) There is where it sits to this day.

I bought an engine from a guy off of here, but the cylinder walls are scored and there's a lot of built up crud. So my plan was to just swap out my old heads for these new ones and hope the engine in my car now lasts until I have the cash to rebuild the new one.

Thus bringing me to my question:
That burning oil smell, in your opinions could it be the bearings? Or is it probably something far less serious? I haven't taken anything apart yet to take a deeper look. As said there are no odd sounds really. I'm just hoping I can make this thing limp along until I can rebuild this new engine.

Mswezey

I'd say one of the first things to do is check your oil for how much water you got in there. That's gonna f you later with the bearings...

Also something had to cause the head gaskets to fail. Switching out the heads with the "newer" pair would only fix the problem if it was your original heads weren't sealing right in the first place. If it was something else, say bad thermostat, your heads right now might not be that ruined if they aren't warped from the overheating. A lot of if's and but's at this point and only way to be sure is to get them sent in and checked out.

But what you are doing is something i've done with my camaro when i first bought it. had 280k miles on it and i blew both gaskets, radiator hose, and the side wall on my head. I just bought a used pair of heads from ebay for $200, slapped those on with new head gaskets and it got me through 3 months but then i spun a bearing it was most likely a mixture of high miles, water being in the oil for that time i blew the gaskets ( yes i switched oils 2x right afterwards), and the high rpms i was doing to get that sea foam stuff through my engine to pass inspection.

just telling you my experience with it and hope it gives you an idea what to expect later down the road

Gerg007

I appreciate it =) I changed the thermostat before, and it was bad.

Side note: We figured out the gasket was probably leaking slightly previously (original coolant was brown) But we were blindly optimistic until we replaced the coolant cap (old one was toast) and a few other things and noticed the performance went way down.

I'm going to go easy on it, if I spin a bearing in 3 mos it's not a huge deal. I just need to buy some time. (this is my DD)