ok after extensive testing i have come to the conclusion that my head gaskets are blown i have a high pressure leak only loses water at highway speeds so my questions would be
1 how hard is it to do the gasket replacement

2 what is the going price to have heads redone and ported?

3 (just incase) what are used lt1 heads going for

 

1). Replacing the head gaskets is not a hard job. If you have never done it, then it is time consuming. Shoebox has a step by step procedure on his website.

2). can't answer.

3). you won't need new heads.

make sure the bottom end didn't get soaked with coolant. The biggest problem with head gaskets being blown is that the oil becomes contaminated with coolant. When this happens, the coolant displaces the oil on the bearings and prevents proper lubrication. Flush the oil a few times after you change the gaskets to make sure you get all of the possible coolant out of the bottom end.


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1.) If you are mechanically inclined and have a FULL set of tools it can be done in a long day or two short days + gasket cure time. If you aren't mechanically inclined it can take several days and can be the most frustrating thing you've ever done. There's no real good answer here.

2.) There's no reason to have the heads ported. Porting alone can cost anywhere from $1000 to $2200, but it would not be worth the $$$ without adding MANY supporting mods. I would leave them alone. But to have the heads milled .020" shouldn't cost you any more than a hundred bucks or so.

3.) Head replacement (more than likely) will not be necessary. But to answer your question $200 seems to be a going price nowadays.

 

Actually, I don't, but there is one here from Alex Afrashteh. Most of the stuff, down to the heads is on my site and really, once you get down to the heads, that is the easy part.

 

i have done many head gasket replacements just not on an lt1 and thanks for all he info on the other stuff

 

I wouldn't call it easy for someone that's never done it before or even if they have. Everything on these cars can be difficult. The LT1 heads have that goofy steam tube on the back which gives some people fits and they often have a couple broken exhaust studs which are also fun to r&r. The exhaust bolts on the other side of the exh manifolds usually have to be broken off & redone if they're all corroded. If there's EGR in there still, that might break all apart. Water pump on/off has taken some people a few tries to get right with no leaks. Some of this goes for any old car, but ours have limited access under the hood and can just be a general pita to work on. There's a lot of potential headaches doing head gaskets, that's fo sho.

 

ok i got the driver side head off engine has been rebuilt looks pretty recent to but its bored .060 over is this to much for an lt1 could this be the cause of the gasket failure?

 

I am not one to answer but I doubt it but why I responded is for a better question to ask what gasket should you run if your bored 60 over and may want to include any future power goals as well as add any you may have in your sig if havent already(didnt look) pretty much asking if there is power restraints at that bore or things to avoid.

 

I had never changed head gaskets but I did it by myself outside in the snow. Worse part for me was the stock manifolds. There is no room under there. I had my heads cleaned and they found a crack on the one that blew. I bought the whole head gasket kit and that pretty much all it cost me.

My gasket blew that the exhaust mixed with coolant and exhaust came out the radiator.

 

thats what mine did blew exhaust into coolant and as for power adderers my car is stock other than the bore as far as i know i might put a cam in in the future but that would be it

 

I just went through a head gasket change and Ill be the first to say that our cars aren't the funnest things to work on. I had to pull both heads at once because the steam tube was so galled in the threads that after i got the heads out where I could get at them good the threads in the head came out with the banjo bolts. I ended up re-threading the holes , plugging them, and swapping the heads from one side to the other and had to get new banjo bolts too. You say the motor has been rebuilt. Do you know who the builder is so you can ask him if the original head bolts are still in the motor? In the f-bodies, the head bolts are reusable from 93-95. Also, maybe you know this, but make sure when you get your head gaskets you tell them your block is bored .60 over and they'll get you a set that matches your bore.