My camaro blew a head gasket three years ago. Before you ask, college student = no money and little spare time. Before I fix it, are there any issues that I should address? The local shop said they wanted to replace the water pump as a preventitive maint. step, is this really needed? It was mentioned since the heads are going to be checked have them refreshed. the tank has about three gallons in it, should I dump it or dilute it with a full tank of gas? lastly, the opti, I know it's ability to rust by just looking at water, should I assume it's gone as well? other than that are there other issues I should be concerned with? Thanks for your input.

 

I didn't have a blown head gasket, but my car sat for six years. Read this.

You may end up needing to replace more stuff than you ever imagined.

 

thanks for the link, very informative. Now I'm worried about the fuel lines bursting.

 

I didn't have an issue with the fuel lines, but my fuel pump was shot. It's a pita to replace.

I wish I would have found a site like this and done some research before I started working on my car. We essentially pulled it out of storage and started going at it. I bought all of my fuel injectors from Autozone and Advanced. I could have probably gotten some better injectors for less money. Live & learn.

 

Was the oil a big batch of coolant milkshake? If so sitting at the bottom of the pan won't do too good for those internals over the past 3 years. I'd pull the pan to inspect.

 

If there is coolant in the oil pan then I'd get a pin light and put it into the oil pan and eyeball the oil pickup as best as you can to see if it is rusty. If not then fix the head gasket, poor about 10 quarts of oil all into the lifter valley (with oil drain plug out and drain pan underneath) at different locations to get any other oil/mixed/coolant sludge out of the pan, get a right angle drill and a primer and prime the engine, put back together and start.