I have seen posts saying that the average shop time is 4-6 hours for head gasket replacement on a 3.4L. I began the project today and 5 hours into it I got the heads off. I'd expect another 5 hours to get it all back together again and running.

Let me say I am not complaining. I just can't see how it's possible to do the jod that much quicker. I'm not your average joe either. I have a garage with a COMPLETE set of tools. I have everything and of course compressed air.

Anyone have tips to make it faster? I'm sure others would be interested.

 

You get faster the more you do them, BTW you taking the heads to a machine shop and have them pressure checked?

 

I can imagine getting a little faster but still, that's alot to take apart.

Yes, they are going to a machine shop Monday morning to get checked. I will most likely have them overhauled anyway since it's apart. I only want to do this once.

 

when I worked at the gm dealer I rolled my right in front of the car and had a table beside the car....I would yank everthing off and lay it on the table in order, never done a camaro 3.4 but the fwd cars. My first one tooks a day and a half....you get quicker with each on

 

That 4-6 hours may also be the book time that they charge, even though it may take the technician half the day. Take a motor swap for example, the book time payed only 10 hours but it would take the technician a couple days at least to complete.

 

My favorite part of the removal was the bolt on the back of the drivers side head holding the wire harness. It was TIGHT and no clearance to break it free. It came off but took a long time.

The best surprise was a head bolt that wasn't even tight. It was loose, so loose in fact you could just pull it out by the head. The bolt was broken off in the block with nothing sticking out. It's still in there today.

 

I had two of those yea.. it ate coolant like crazy

 

It may be that they made the 4 or 6 hour job guess one the time it would take to take the heads off while having the motor out of the car

 

on the 3.8 I found you can pull the heads off withount having to actaully take of the lower part of the intake mainfold (is a pain to line the head back up though and I am not sure if it is the same on a 3.4??).. anyways that may save 15 minutes...
my timing was about the same as yours... about one good afternoon ( say 2pm untill 7pm) to get it off and about the same to put it on.. but I am kind of slow about things and take my time doing things like checking the torque twnety times, labeling all electrical connectors, tap threads in block, clean dirtly bolts threads, etc.,

 

On the 3.4 you have to remove the intake to remove the heads. It all has to come off.