well, im pretty sure my head gaskets are toast. either that or i have a cracked block and/or head. got white smoke and rough idle on start up, once it warms up, it goes away (im assuming the metal expands and fixes the problem, well temporariliy at least). how difficult is it to change the head gaskets? how much money would a shop charge me if i didnt do it myself? is there any way to determine that it is definitely the head gaskets, and not a warped/cracked block/heads? anybody point me in the direction of someone whos previously done it, or has a place documenting how to do it?

Thanks guys.

 

If the block is cracked, the your oil will look like chocolate milk becaue coolant will have entered the engine. An oil change should reveal that.

The head gasket isn't hard to change, it's getting to it that is the difficult part. There is a lot to remove just to get to it, and I'm sure the back two cylinders will be under the cowl. In my opinion it wouldn't be worth it for a shop to do so, because of how much they would charge. The gaskets should run you about 20 bucks. And if you re-torque the heads to spec in the proper sequence you should be fine. My guess is it will take you about 4 hours. You could check with a shop but I am thinking they'd charge 400 or 500 dollars.

 

words of encourgment, HAVE FUN!!!!!

 

shop would be about 600 bucks

you can do it yourself but you have to get to everthing and clean all gasket surfaces

gaskets are about 80 -100 for the set with bolts (yes you need new head bolts with aluminum heads)

also you definitly should take your heads to a machine shop and get them tested (that there not cracked)and resurfaced

usually another 100