Well now...... you see most guys in your case would smile... because they have a legit excuse now to break into the engine. How much free cash do you have to spend?

 

I have $3500 in the bank.

Now this has to contribute towards:

Alcohol - $1000
Repairs - $1000
Emergencies - $1000

So I have about $500 that I want to spend.

Parents said they'd chip in on half.

So for a mechanic to do it $1500/2 = $750 to do the head gasket.

Or approx $500/2 = $250 to do it myself.

Whats eating me up the most inside is that I worked all summer to replace a head gasket >:

 

1000 for alcohol? Get your priorities right...

 

Yeesh... you took the hood off to do a cam swap?

 

I meant for going out


And it was apparently rebuilt just because the guy wanted to have a reliable car for his wife to drive to and from work.

We are no longer on speaking terms, as the phone conversation ended in us hanging up on one another.

 

F**k that, I would make him at least cough up $300 for the parts. If not, funny things have a way of happening..........

 

My 2 cents

#1 Have someone that can come over that has done real engine work just in case you get stuck.

#2 Work in the best place possible. At least something with cover.

#3 Have a good selection of tools, cleaners, etc. before hand or it will just **** you off having to start and stop all the time. Also, all the gaskets, RTV, new head bolts. Make a list before hand. Spend some time preparing and it will go alot better.

 

and remember this...
if life didn't suck, we'd all fall off!!

 

Yah I mean he said, i'm not paying for someone elses car. Which is true. But I'll organize something with my college buddies for him.



^^^ And yea, I'm gonna do it at my friends house who lives right next door to a 65 year old car restorere with a couple vetts and engines sitting in his garage. So i'm hopin tools and advice will be readily available.

 

Agreed! That should be at least 1500 for alcohol...Have you learned NOTHING in college??!?!?

 

I'm learning as I go...I just learned chicks dig muscle cars.



Oh yah btw....what kind of manual should i get...it needs to be REALLY in depth about doing stuff....lots of pictures and desctiptions, preferrably a pop up book.

I couldn't find a Helms.

 

Porting the heads yourself would be the best way to do it cheaply....IF YOU REALLY WANT HP AND NICE TORQUE you'll need to throw out some money, while you've removed all of your cooling system, unbolted your intake manifold, exhaust manifolds (which i pitty you on), taken off many other fasteners AND LABLED EVERY WIRE (tedioius, but helps soooo much during reassembly), you wont be far from doing a camshaft...and if you had the money to buy and while its down, BOLT ON better and newer heads, depending on your choice a cam and head swap CAN SHOW increases in both HP and TQ as high as 50-70 HP for a street engine (or so i've heard)

the cheapest route would be like you had in mind originally, port and polish the valve chambers and all the ports (aside from unimportant cooling ports), while i had the head down, i would at least bolt on some nice Roller Rocker Arms, Comp Cams make's an affordable set of roller tipped rockers which will increase power a bit, i run them in my 96 and they seem to do well for me, for bolt on power and while you've got your engine down, the price is right, i've provided Summit's link, those are the EXACT rocker arms you'd need (self aligning is a very important factor) goodluck! take your time and you'll see its not as bad as it looks, or people say it is, not to mention the pride that you get from YOUR OWN fixing it

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

Don't forget to hose down all of your exhaust manifold bolts and collector bolts with Liquid Wrench a couple days prior. Snapping off a couple of those rusty bolts will mess up your day and make the repair a whole nuther headache.

 

MAKE SURE TO HAVE AT LEAST $500 laying around to be spent- cause other costs can and will pop up... .it adds up quick

and reason for taking the hood off- i put car into poll at school- so... figured if i was replacing the fender, bumper cover and hood- may as well cam it lol - so i had the whole front end stripped down to do the swap-

 

Coming from experience:

Get some people over there who have done this sort of thing before, and/or are mechanically inclined. Fix this thing back to stock specs. Put a 160* thermostat in the car and have the fans reprogrammed AND FOR CHRIST SAKE LEAVE THE REST OF IT STOCK WHILE YOU'RE IN COLLEGE!

I messed with my car on and off when I was in college. It ultimately resulted in having to pay almost $3000 (taxes/cost of car included) to get a daily driver because the Camaro was not reliable at all. Now, everyone might not agree with me, and tell you to mod this thing to the high heavens. Do what you want. I personally spent too much time, money and effort on the car when I should have been focusing on other stuff.

Good luck with the repairs.