So about 2 months ago my 1993 camaro Z28 started overheating. After taking it to a friend of ours, who is a good mechanic but a slug at doing it, came to the conclusion that it was the head gasket. The exhaust blows out white smoke and has a syrup smell. I took it to another mechanic and he came up with a price of 1,000 for labor alone. roughly 18 hrs of labor. not including the head gasket, I was just wondering if this is correct or will i be paying too much?
thanks

 

I feel your pain. Me too. That sounds a bit steep though. Let's hope neither of us has a cracked block or head! It is a PITA, and a lot of work, which I will unfortunately have to do. Not looking forward to going this deep with the motor still in the car. I should be starting to pull it down tommarow. I'm not doing one head, I'm pulling both of em'. It got pretty hot. It's gonna be about $75. in parts/gaskets, etc. for me to do. Probably some blood sweat, and a lot of cussing! I think my fans may not be coming on, and my drain petcock in my radiator had no o-ring, which caused me to lose too much coolant. I had a cop on my *** so I didn't check the gauge for a while, next thing I know she's pipin' *** hot. I just want something old again, with no PITA computer BS. I can't friggin wait! Forget about it...I got a bike, and a car with an ecm, and it's driving me nuts. I want my 68 Camaro back.

 

The worst part is the labor for someone rebuilding you motor isn't that much more and you only get new gaskets for a $1000. I would have a hard time not paying $2000-$3000 and getting so much more in return. Plus most mechanics will do the minimum and never clean or replace all the stuff if you did it yourself.

 

i was just quoted 1,000 in labor for replacing the headgaskets in my 97 formula. I bring all my own parts.

 

A friend of mine had the same problem with his camaro with a 180,000
miles on it. he bought a low mileage LT1 with 75,000 miles for 800 and had
a local mom&pop shop put it in for 600 total 1400 with a 100,000 miles less on it
a thousand bucks is a lot of money to just fix the head gasket if the car has high miles

 

I agree. That many miles I would have the entire engine freshened up. It's not cheap no matter what you do. May be able to get a deal on a new crate motor installed for what it would cost to pull engine and rebuild/ re-install. Hardest part with these cars is the engine sits so far back under the cowl. Not an easy job to do any motor work. I'm not sure you can even get a head or heads off with the motor still in the car. I may certainly be wrong about that but we had a similar problem. Luckily it wasn't the head gasket just fan sensors and temp sensors.

 

Thanks for the replies, im going to head to the mechanic tomorrow to see whats up. ill keep looking into though, i love this car.

 

Removing the heads is easily doable with the engine still in the car. The hardest part is the steam tube connecting the two heads (which can be easily dealt with).

Any reason you wouldn't be able to do it yourself with a few knowledgeable buddies?

 

Im not too sure if i can, with my luck the car might explode later on.

 

well talked to my mechanic today.....he decided that its going to take too long to work on and that it would take him two months with his other jobs. Im going to go look around and see what i can find, if it comes down to it, ill go in there myself with your guys knowledge of course.

 

that is a high price for head gasket here in arkansas where i work our labor cost is 672 bucks tacks 14 hours and the head gasket kit is 100 bucks the ways to tell if the head gasket is blown is first check the oil and see if its milky if it is blown next thing is take the radiator cap off and start the engine if the head gasket is blown it will shoot water out those are the two sighns that i look for your car should have cast iron heads the corvettes have aluminum heads so they shouldent be cracked or anything like that a quick thing to try to just get you buy is they make a stuff some parts stors have it, it is called blue devel you take the thermostat out start the car and pour half a bottle in the radiator and instead of it coroding your engine like most head gasket sealents this will actualy cleen your engine and workes very very very well my 95 corvette blew the headgasket and i put blue devel in it and that was 80xxx miles ago and its still holding strong

 

tried the blue devil on mine but wouldnt hold it down with the water shooting out of it. i dont understand how you could get it to work when it wont even let it circulate with water trying to blow back out. it says to let the car idle for almost an hour. it would blow up by then...

 

All LT1 4th gen F-bodies came with aluminum heads...and they can warp if overheated. Mine did.

Unless you are really strapped for cash, for goodness sake, fix a blown head gasket problem the right way. Not with a "sealant".

 

blgray100...as mentioned....Lt1 camaros and firebirds are factory aluminum heads...not just the corvettes.

The blue devil gasket sealer cleans your engine too?? first ive heard of that.