I never thought the day would come at just 88k miles but
 

... the sweet-smelling white smoke erupting from my exhaust and the dreaded "LOW COOLANT" light are sure signs of what is undoubtedly a blown head gasket... :mad:

So what now? My plan is to replace the heads and throw in a bigger cam - why not? My current situation is that I can only work on my car in my mom's garage. No longer than 1 - 2 weeks. I'm kinda broke (high rent) so I can't spend over $1000.

I've found some re-surfaced LT1 heads for about $400. Plus an LT4 hotcam for $150 new. This plus new springs, gaskets, etc. will land me around $800 - $850. I plan to do all the work with my friend so $0 labor costs. I will give him my old heads to use on another fbody.

Does anyone else have any ideas? What could I do to make my car more reliable? It's not my daily driver so I tend to give it hell when I drive it. :D

Anyone else went through what I did plz throw in your $.02

I did...at about 84K miles on it. I put in a hot cam kit, and it lasted me 10 days. Now I have a clank clank clank, and I think i'm in the boat with those that spun a bearing after a cam swap on a high mileage LT1. Not to discourage you, but if you don't have the money, i wouldn't recommend it. My car has been sitting for over a month for my trying to save up to take it to a mechanic. I might be a minority though. Good Luck.

Before you spend a bunch of money on the top end is your bottom end OK??


If you have splashed your bearings with coolant the life of your crank may be shortened.

I blew my head gasket at about 70K and all I did was re surface the heads (- 10 thousanths) as the heads were fine otherwise and put it back together. Runs as good or better now than it ever did. I had also caught the head gasket before the sweet smell of coolant in the exhaust and it wasn't smoking yet and did not have any coolant in the oil.

Total cost was around $300 (US) including gaskets, machining, fluids, new O2 sensors and other odds and ends.

just my $0.02

just do it, but it always cost more then you expect.

my car had 120k on it when i did a cam and head swap (they'er still stock :( but swaped them none the less) i beat on it everytime i drive it and it hasnt had a problem.

As said before just do it. I did two head swaps and three cam changes on my Impala with no problemds from them. I blew the motor on nitrous at 72,000 miles from a valve dropping and destroying a piston but not from a head and cam swap. Just be Clean about it. Make sure and properly clean eveything and leave no praticles being gasket material or metal anywhere. I alway place towels in the oil valley when pulling heads and cam. I also blow out the valley with air before installing the intake to get any remaining debree out. If you take your time and are clean about it you should have no problems. Most spun bearings after cam and or head sway are due to being in a hurry or and sloppiness. Good Luck!:D
HVY SS

How will I know if I have splashed my bearings with coolant?


hvyss: I plan to take my time and clean everything to the best of my ability. I hope 2 weeks with work full time and school part time will be enough to do this.


Like I said I have 88k miles so is there anything else I should replace while I have the top end taken apart?

I hope I don't come off wrong, but maybe I can help a little.

I have a fresh set of ported LT1 heads in my garage. They're my original heads and I had the porting done here in Nashville, but before I decided to go to a 383, so these heads were undersized for the stroker. I put these heads for sale here back in March, but at the time, I was out of town with what ended up being the death of my father-in-law. So though there was a lot of interest, basically I just faded out on the thread because of all of the turmoil surrounding that situation. Yeah, I know, kind of lame, but your priorities snap around really quick when someone close to you dies.

That thread starts HERE , if you're interested in more info, but the heads flow pretty good at 255 Int/190 Exh at .550. Far better then stockers and have never been used after they were done back in March.

I'm about to dive back into selling them along with taking care of a bunch of other loose ends, now that things have settled back down. If you need to do heads, I would sell them to you for $500, plus shipping. That's less than I think I can get for them, but if you need to get your ride running cheap, I'm game. I was young and broke once myself, a long time ago.

On the upside, I was bummed when my LT1 died, but when it was all over, I'm glad it did. Otherwise, I might never have gotten around to doing these mods that make me grin like an idiot while I'm driving. :D

MyZb383 - sent PM.

I have read some on the cam swap problem and I am not sure what is happening to all of these motors. I think you are in pretty good shape. Since the Antifreeze was leaking into the cylinder and you can see it is burning. I would check my oil for any signs of anitfreeze. I know from experience on the 2.8 and 3.1 that You need to wash all of that antifreeze out of the engine it will eat the coating of your bearings. Usually I would change the headgaskets and change oil and filter. Start it run for 1 minute till oil circulates and change oil and filter again. Start it up road test it get up to temp bring back in change oil and filter again then lastly run for a week and change oil and filter again. I have had really good luck even with my GF Grand Am on saving these things. I have seen guys take the short way and be ok and cook the lower end. Oil and filters are realitivly inexpensive compared to fixing the lower end.

Don't forget to budget for head gaskets, intake gaskets, water pump and timing cover gaskets, coolant, oil (10 qts), oil filters (2 of them), head bolts, and misc. crap like assembly lube and fastners. After budgeting all that add 20% and you'll be right in the ball park.

Like the other said, do it!

-Chris