188,000 miles. blown out gasket. MONEY IS AN ISSUE!!! i'm paying with leftover student loans

1. rebuild cost??? would think around 2400 installed?
2. i found a lt1 out of a 94 (like mine) 36,000 miles 1,200$ add longtubes and a cam
a. Lingenfelter 211/219...533"int/.560" exhaust(with 1.6s).
b. lt4 hotcam?
c. any other sugestion on cam???
3. Fix gasket. i think this is pointless with the miles.

IF YOU KNOW OF ANY LT1'S FOR SALE LET ME KNOW!!! DALLAS AREA OR SPRINGFIELD, MO

 

Since you stated money is an issue, just replace the head gaskets to get you by. I don't understand why you're looking at performance cams and RR's if you're broke

 

Thats what I was thinking.

If youre broke, adding mods is a waste of money. You can fix a head gasket with your time and less than $100.

 

i thought this is something that you need to pretty much pull the engine to fix? its so bad that there is coolent in the oil and was being burnt up with gas? white smoke out of the back of the car... coolant was disappearing and car was overheating. so the heads may even be warped.

u have to take off the intake, heads, exhaust manifolds, alt. on top of that i have 188,000 miles and it was running like crap. i have general knowledge on my car. most i have done is take out the tranny and installed gears. no real motor work.

i can take out an extra 2600 in student loans, so this is money i will have to pay back. i have it.. but its borrowed. so i'm not going to go insane on the build.

cam and headers... figured if i'm putting a engine in it now is the time to do them. not down the road

 

I have a set of rebuilt heads for sale for $350.
http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425565
I will ship them to your area for free, since we are in the same state. Buy them and some head gaskets, install them over the weekend, and sell your old heads on eBay for $200 and you are out very little money.

 

pmed u

anyone else have thoughts?
another option is buy those heads. headers c306? replace gaskets? is that ok on 188,000 but rebuilt heads?

 

306 cam on a stock bottom end with a life time of miles, in my opinion is a very bad idea. Some people are cautious about putting a cam in a car with 100k on the clock. By 180k most f bodies are in pretty poor condition from what ive seen. Be smart about this. Your wanting to borrow even more money in student loans? Isn't the interest you have to pay on those really high? Its just a car man, youll have lots more to come when you have more money. Buy a head gasket, do it yourself and be done with it. Also, no you shouldnt have to pull the motor if all your doing is pulling the manifolds, heads and intake off. By the time you got the motor out, you could have already been done with the rest of it. Just my opinion.

 

thanks for the input green
possibility the heads could be warped or cracked? i've talked to a guy local off the boards about maybe??? rebuilding and doing cam headers. with new heads for $350 that would do it super cheap and has experience. as far as the loan interest is paid for by the govenment because its a subsidised (spelling?) i'm planning on keeping the car forever, so i think now may be the time to redo it all.

 

Yeah student loans don't get interest until like 6 months after you are done attending school (I think). I cammed AND supercharged my 125k motor with no bottom end problems, but yours might not make it, ya never know...If your heads got very hot they probably warped, but I would be surprised if they cracked. I have worked a lot of aluminum LT1 heads in the past 3 years and I haven't seen any cracked. Hot aluminum will warp if it cools too fast though...If the heads are not warped you could just replace the gasket, but make sure you have an accurate way of checking for warp.

If you don't have the money for a cam right now, I wouldn't take out a loan personally. Cam=worse gas mileage=more money. Wait until you can afford to have your car done the way you want it so you don't get in over your head

 

I had a head gasket blow last month, I did all the work myself and saved a ton of money. The lowest quote I got was 2,000 bucks. I sent my heads out to get resurfaced, along with a complete valve job on both heads, the guy charged me 300. So, I ended up spending a total of about 550-600 (gaskets, machine shop, oil, coolant etc). You'll be glad you did it yourself once your finished with it, good luck

 

Find the cyl that it is blown on,or the one that is leaking. Pull THAT ONE head. Check it for streight(correct if necessary)clean everything good and put it back together with new TTY bolts for that side.
Don't pull both heads and valve job and all that. If ya do there is a 99% chance it will start changing it's own oil. This happens from the increased vacuum from the valve job sucking the oil past the worn rings. Ya know burning the hell out of oil and smoking.

 

dang and to think it was one gasket... gotta love that cramped engine compartment too...

 

Bar's Leak. If the headgasket isn't too bad, it might work.

 

already have somthing in the works... thank you tho

 

Have a 1995 with lt1 , do you have to pull the engine to change the head gasket? I think my head gasket is leaking on the passergen side.
Thanks Frank