I have a 95 6spd z28 camaro. My lt1 decided to blow the head gasket 2 weeks ago and its been sitting in front of my house. I figured while i was apart id invest in a little cam set up. Now the problem is one shop wanted almost 3k to do just the head gasket. Anyone know where I can get it done cheaper but get it done right? Im located on Suffolk Long Island.

Thanks Rob

 

3k to do a head gasket? ouch...

invest a few days of your time to find out how to do it yourself and save yourself alot of money.

 

They are seriously gouging you. For $3k you could buy another motor and do the swap yourself.

 

$3k is probably a bit too much but not all that far off. Figure $90 an hour, 3 to 4 x 8 hr days for 1 tech in labor for heads and cam. Parts and cya time you could easily hit $3000.

If you want it cheaper you gotta do it yourself. You can probably find a shop who will do it for $2000-$2500 the right way. Anything less from a shop and they are cutting corners somewhere to make it easier and less time consuming. Or you find someone todo it for you on the side. I used to do it but honestly heads and cam are a PITA on a stock motor/chassis. My race car? No problem... there is nothing else in the engine bay to get in the way. I stopped doing it because of the liability. I did headers for a guy and 2 months later he blew an exhaust gasket. Wanted me to do it for free because it must have been my fault... I said kiss off you go a cam and headers for $800, you pay me and I'll do it otherwise go pound sand. He didn't want to and argued with me. He ended updoing it himself and realizing he got it for cheap. I stopped doing sidework because of stuff like that.


I dont know any shops near you but shop around and find out exactly what they are going to do before you hand over the car. Or get some friends and some tools and start taking it appart.

 

Call Kaltech

http://www.kaltechtuning.com/index.php?main_page=index

 

does that include sending the heads out to a machine shop to have them inspected and cleaned up.

I paid $2,500 in 2005 for head gasket but machine shop cleaned and bead blasted heads and also included upgrading the RR to GMPP 1.6

Like mentioned above if you're going to do anything performance wise to car now is a good tiem while it is apart. It is a time consuming task.

 

I found a shop in hicksville Mouthracing who will do it for a decent price. along with my cam set up. Got them by word of mouth. He does very good work from what ive heard and has done countless lt1 and other cars.

 

yea Mouth Racing is good. Joey Mouth is the owner, he knows his **** well

 

Yup so ive heard. He gave me a pretty fair price on install for everything. I gotta call him again to discuss dropping the car off sumtime nxt week. Cant wait to drive my camaro again lol.

 

Sorry to bump an old thread I made. But just a heads up for anyone going to mouthracing in Hicksville. I really cant go into details as i am gonna try and go after him but he pretty much screwed me. after he was "finished" with the work there ended up being coolant still mixing with oil. Along with gas mixing.after a 20 mile drive home. Contact with him was a joke. He saw my number and wouldnt pick up. Id call from my friends phone he would answer, hear my voice then hang up. I would have to call private and random numbers he doesnt know to even have a fighting chance of talking to him. After the first couple weeks of this i started calling everyday Then actually had to go down there to get him to look at the car. His idea of looking at it consisted of pulling the valve covers off and leaving me a voice mail saying the motor needs a lot of work. I ended up needing a new motor. When the old motor was pulled out the oil looked the same as when i brought it to him. So i basically handed him 2k to do nothing. And on top of that another $5-$600 in tows.

CLIFF NOTES- Stay far away from mouthracing. Guys a lowlife who doenst know what hes doing.

 

where in suffolk are you located?

 

www.villagedropshop.com, ASE certified, GM mastertech, but its in orange county NY, zip 12566

 

I ended up buying a crate motor from GM. 4 bolt main etc. got the car running and driving. Just waiting on new 02s and a mail order to come in. A place by me in shirley fixed everything. East coast Eddie's. Guy knows his stuff. Its a small shop attached to Mobil. I was referred there by a family friend.

 

thats cool, glad everything worked out for you.