Well, my head gasket took a crap on me today,the guy at the auto shop quoted me 2,000 to fix it. I never done a head gasket(s) before but I do work on airplane engines for a living. How hard of a job would it be to fix it myself? I kinda have no choice 'cause I dont have the $$$ to have someone else do it for me. I will have all the tools required, just wondering if it could be done in a weekend.

 

Depending on your headers, they may have to come out so you can get access to some of the head bolts. I was able to get to all the bolts on my heads without taking my old SLP headers out, but with the Hooker long tubes they most definitely have to be out of the way.

The coolant crossover tube that runs between the heads and then up to the radiator can be a pain in the ***. Instead of trying to take that off in the car, I have found it's easier to get both heads ready to come out, you pull one head and have a buddy pull the other at the same time. The bolts that hold the crossover tube to the heads are very hard to remove with them in the car.

There are two bolts that help hold the accessory bracket to the passenger side head, they are behind the power steering pump and you can't see them. You will have to unbolt the power steering pump and move it side to side to get access to the bolts.

Start off by disconnecting as much of the harness as you can, and lay it out of the way, disconnect the fuel lines and throttle cables then remove the intake manifold. Next remove the alternator, both valve covers and take the rocker arms off (don't forget those two bolts behind the PS pump). On the drivers side, go ahead and take off the coil.

Now you might as well get the exhaust out of the way. Remember, leave the coolant crossover tube on and pull both the heads at the same time. Remove all the head bolts. You don't really have to drain the coolant from the block, but it's advisable (less clean up later).

Those are just the high points, this is not a simple project. However, I think you could do it in one weekend. The thing that will present a problem is getting your heads machined flat. You will need to do this to make sure the new headgaskets seal.

 

Thank you for your reply, I'm sure it will help me out alot.

 

personally I think 2000 is a rip. if you dont mind taking the hood off your car and removing the exhaust system you can do it in the car. Its not the easiest thing to do but it is do-able.

 

i never took my hood off doing a head gasket

 

I didn't take my hood off either, but it might help free up a little room since most of the work is done bending over. Which brings me to another point, you can jack the car up and get it on jackstands so you don't have to bend over as much. It will save your back a little.

 

Its definitely a back breaking job... thats for sure. But I will say its easier than doing a cam install. I put P&P heads on in a weekend easy which is essentially the same process. The hardest part of the job to me was bolting down the passanger side head because of the cramped space and Hooker LTs always in the way.

The only potential problem I could see for you however is the heads may need resurfaced. Once overheated, aluminum heads have a tendency to warp which causes blown head gaskets. If thats the case then youll be doing a lot of labor for nothing. The problem will return.

 

 

yeah I guess that does seem kinda dumb but I'm 6'5'' so It kinda helps not to bump my head every time I turn around to get a different tool out of the toolbox so I just pull the hood off when I do a long project.

 

Hood off does help a lot. I mean come on its 4 bolts. And the process is whats listed above. Straight foward, nothing hard. Just lengthy.

 

I didnt take off my hood but I have when I pulled the motor, basically the same amount of work, it helps when your trying to get your arms around the air shock

 

Did you head gasket go from overheating or detonation? If it was detonation, no need to resurface the head.

Take your time to seal the intake back up right upon installation; clean the mating surfaces thoroughly and let the RTV skin over before lowering the intake straight down on the heads (RTV on the from and back, gaskets on the ports).

 

Jackstands remedy that problem well.

 

On aluminum heads that have any time on them you pretty much need to surface them. The fire ring brinell's the deck(indents) and if coolant mixture was not right there can be porosity that needs to be welded or surfaced out. I never re-install an aluminum head without a minimum surface(about .002")

 

2000 is a rip for sure. Whats the labor rate... say 80 to 85 per hour.... that works out to around 24 hours.

A fully equipped shop, and a guy that's done this before shouldn't need more than 12 hours.

Maybe he included a whole new head for you in that quote. Ha.