Hey guys, pretty soon I am doing a cam install on my Z and was wondering how much harder it will be to do the head gasket while I am in there? I have headers too, so basically I am wondering how much it will cost, what gaskets I should replace while in there and how hard it will be.

Any input is appreciated.

 

Gm gaskets or Fel Pro's For sure !!!

Cant wait to hear/see/ maybe even get a ride in that beast this summer !!!

Let me know if you need/want a hand when you get into it.. Would like to see how the process goes.. I'll be doing mine sometime this summer as well.. Just trying to finish the suspension up first

 

Well since you'll have the front of the motor and intake tore off anyway you wont be too far from the heads.

You'll need the headers off and the coolant crossover, and the bolts through the bracket on the pass side off, then just break the bolts loose in a circular pattern startin gin the middle. when you have all the bolts out you may have to pop the head with a dead blow object (dead blow hammer, rubber mallet, wooden mallet, board etc, no steel hammers) or mayby pry and then lift the head off, clean gasket surfaces and make sure they are flat. (probably best to get the heads trued up too). The gasket really depends on what you want. If you have the factory gasket in ther now going with the fel-pro will give you a little more compression and going with the Impala gasket will give you close to a half point of compression. Use some kind of sealer on the bolts and torque them down in at least 3 stages to 60.

For sealant I like the ARP with teflon, there is agod sealer as well called pipe thread sealer with teflon at any parts store.

Forgot to add to drain the coolant from both sides of the block down enough to dry off all the headbolt hole threads. then chase each hole with a good bolt or a thread chaser, dont recomend a tap because it wear out the threads.

 

Haha, yea once I am done if you want a ride in it thats cool. I may be working on it this coming week since I am on spring break and it would be a perfect time to get it done.

So if you want I can let ya know when I am working on it and you can come watch/help out if you want then you could do yours no problem....

 

Sounds good Chris..

Let me know when...

-Keith

 

Is there a kit that I can buy from summit or something that has all the gaskets that should be changed at the same time? How long of a job am I lookin at with the whole top end of the motor off anyway?

Thanks guys

 

You can buy a head gasket set for around $150 which will give you all the gaskets you want for your project.

 

Does summit sell a set? The only set I found real quick was like 96 bucks and I am not sure if it included everything or if it would even be the best for my car....

 

I just kinda skimmed threw all that but you are wanting to change your good head gaskets I think you also have to change the head bolts too. That just don't make much sense to me.

 

Well I am not sure if they are good or bad really. I am not getting white smoke nor a large loss of coolant. But last spring when I pulled it outta storage and did my oil change the resorvoir was a little milky at the top and it kinda scared me, but didn't do anything about it because I had no other symptoms. I am also having problems with it starting on the first try, sometimes it just won't turn over at all the first time, but it will after 2 or 3 tries. So I am think that the head gaskets are beginning to go and I figured it would be best to do them while I am in there. I guess I can check the oil again and see if it is still milky near the top of the reservoir.

Thanks guys

 

Are you talking about the oil cap? If so it is very common for that to happen. .

 

Yeah condenssation will do that, its normal, but an advantage to changing to a thinner head gasket is more compression = more power.

ARP sells a set of head bolts for 50$