You're familiar with the phrase "damned if you do, damned if you don't"

One never knows about these cars. The engine may be toast, i.e, it may require a total rebuild---or maybe even a total replacement. I certainly haven't a clue, and you won't either unless it is totally analyzed.

There is also the phrase, "cut your loses" or "quit while you're behind" . This may also be appropriate. Again this is something that you need to consider. If the car is supposed to be a primary mode of transportation, you better cut your loses. If it is going to be a project car, then you are going to be spending money and time and plenty of headaches.

We have all made costly mistakes from bad judgements with these cars.
You are not alone. But making the same mistakes over again is like chasing your money on a blackjack table. Know when to hold'em know when to fold'em.

Tis better to get it over with and get on with life than to stress out. You are most likely going to take a hit since nobody wants a car with a bad engine.

Now if you can pick up a good used engine and slap it in, you might have something worthwhile to start with----but if you or your gf have ideas of modifying it, then you know what you are in for.

One idea is to find someone who has something to trade you for it which you can either liquidate or use, and which will bring in more than if you actually tried to sell the car outright. There are those who have some good stuff, but no cash and you might be able to convert the trade into something which may offset the otherwise expected loss.

Food for thought.

 

Pull the"

INtake 1st: unclip all the wire harness and move it aside. Disconnect the fuel lines, OR unbolt the fuel rails and just move it out of the way with the fuel lines still attached.
UNbolt the intake and pull it up and out.

Exhaust manifolds next: Might be good to soak the bolts with BP blaster or some other penitrant. Unbolt the manifol (you might set a socket on them and give each a whack with a light hammer also) and expect for a least one of the bolts to be broken off in the head, or to break one off inte head. once you have the head off you can remove the broke off bolts. This is fairly common on LT1's. You might can get away with leaving the manifolds bolted up to the y-pipe to avoide breaking more bolts on the collectors.

Next, remove the valve covers. You have to remove the alternator on the pass side to do this( you have to remove it anyway to remove the intake manifold), so disconect the battery before doing this. WIth the valve covers off, losen all the rocker arm nuts enough to remove the pushrods. Make a palet that is numbered so that you can put all the pushrods back into the original locations.

After that, your ready to remove the heads with a 5/8's deep socket. (maybe 3/4?) You'll need to remove both heads at the same time because there is a cooland crossover pipe at the back that is next to impossible to remove while the heads are on the car. If removing both heads isnt in the cards, and you cant remove the rear crossover pipe bolts (this is what ive done) you can cut the tube in the middle, and use a piece of 1/4 hose to make a coupling with two band clamps. Sounds cheap but it works just fine for me. Remove the head(s) and clean the block with a razor blade and or a wire brush.
The cleaner the gasket surface, the better off things will be

With the heads and intake off you have the oportunity to clean all the carbon and crap out before reinstallation. Again, you dont have to do this, its just for peice of mind.

Dont forget to clean the gasket surfaces on the intake manifold as well an on the block deck(where the front and rear seals of the manifold are.After getting everything as clean as possible, use some break parts cleaner and a rag and wipe down all the surfaces.

Clean the gasket surfaces of the head, as well as the combustion chambers. Then you can carefully inspect them for cracks, or take the to a machine shop in town and have them check them out. They can also check for warped heads. Also they should be able to remove any busted off exhaust bolts. Dont forget new manifold bolts (ace hardware) and take note of where the metal spacers go as well.

Lastly, clean all the old head bolts with a wire brush. They arent torque to yeild so you can reuse them. Clean them with a wire brush and wrap the threads with thread sealer about 3/4 inch up. Also its a good idea to run a thread tap down each cyl head bolt hole to clean out any trash and to ensure a proper torque.

Install the new gasket(s) and heads using the correct torque senquence. Alittle dab of oil on each thread will also ensure a proper torque. ( a small dab of anti sieze compound will work.

Before you install the intake manifold, get a tube of black RTV and lay down a 3/8 bead of silicone gasket maker on the front and rear seals. Let it sit so that there is a dried outer skin that wont stick to your fingers when you toutch it. Set the gaskets in place first, a little dab of silicone on the ends may help keep them in place. make sure the bead of silicone you lay down runs all the way to the corners of the heads and up onto the heads about an 1/8 inch.

Place the intake manifold STRAIT down onto the block/ heads so that you dont have to disrupt the front/ rear silicone seals you made will lining up bolt holes. You need to refrence what bolts go where on the intake as well because some of them have studs used as mounting brackets. Start threading in all the intake bolts then use the proper torque sequence. Its a good idea to clean these bolts as well and use thread sealer.

Next find out how to adjust the rocker arms to zero lash. There is pleanty of info here on this topic.

Reinstall valve covers, alternator, fuel lines( rail), electrical connections and the intake duct.

Open the bleed screws and fill the radiator(this helps with bleeding, and DONT run the engine without a thermostat. Infact go ahead and replce it). Keep adding coolant untill it starts to seep out of the bleed screws. I use a water hose for the last little bit, and with a rag and the screws open, make a seal with the rag and the waterhose over the ratiator fill port and this will make the bleed screws spew water. While they are spewing close them by hand, remove the water source, and tighten them down.

If youve got over 100K miles on the motor, its prob a good idea to go ahead and replce the waterpump (50$ for a reman). Also for around 80$ you can have the radiator rodded out wich will help with keeping things cool eminsly.

Change the oil/ filter and crank her up! Your done!

Seems like a lot, thats because it kinda is. However, if you gather all the right parts/ tools, you can have most ov it done in one day.

Good luck, and let us all know how it turns out.

 

or.....as an alternative: take a wrench and hit yourself in the face.

 

I bet your heads are fine. Pull them off and look closely for cracks. If there not cracked, chances are they arent warped either. Ive overheated the **** outoff acouple of LT1s that are still on the road today. Just depends on how long it ran while hot. If it died on her from being overheated... well thats when Id start to worry.

Similar thing happend to my Z28. OVerheated and overheated.... blew the headgasket over the #1 cyl. Replaced the one gasket and its still running just fine today.

Just take your time and do it right the first time, or do it over.

 

Powerslide: Thanks for the rundown. It looks pretty straightforward by that description. She is always amazed that I can fix just about anything that goes wrong on cars. I tell her, it's metal and bolts. If you can loosen and tighten a bolt, you can work on a car. LOL. Sounds like I'll be tackling this myself.

And Bubba: The hitting myself in the face with a wrench would be a viable option if my face wasn't so dang good looking. Can't mess up this award-winning smile. LOL.

 

Best of luck to yas......

 

take a look see at the latest thread with the "new Lt1 Long block"---hell of a deal. JMHO

 

That's a great deal. Why do I always hear that GM crate engines are over 8 to 12 grand?

 

Thanks for the heads up Bubba. She unfortunately doesn't have the money for that, so hopefully the engine is not damaged.

The wiring and intake are off and working on the header bolts now. Unfortunately, my 8 day break at work is over, so I'm back for working nights for the next 4 days. BTW, header bolts are a PITA to get to! LOL.

 

If you wanna be 100% on the heads, you can always send em out to be cleaned and checked. Might cost you ~$75-100, but worth it IMO.