* another ****ty udpate*Blown Head gasket

[camaroincal]

Well ain't this a biatch. My dad and I changed my oil yesterday and when I got under the car some coolant was dripping from the engine. I kind of knew my water pump was on its way out and I thought for sure that was the prob. So I took it to the shop to have a new water pump installed. After they installed it they ran some tests and it turns out I have a blown head gasket and/or cracked head etc, as they won't be sure until they take it apart. So I went from a $160 water pump to an estimated (their estimate) of $1500+! This guy is trustworthy though as we've known him some time and my dad has done work for him at his house etc..

So anyway I'll get the news of exactly whats wrong but I'm curious about if any of you guy/gals have dealt with this before. When we changed my oil it was fine. No milkyness at all. The car has been kinda jerky at low rpm's. And when I turn the a/c on I had been smelling some coolant.

One thing that might be good about this is I'm prolly getting some head work done in the way of porting and polishing, that is if the cost of the head gasket fix isn't too outrageous. I figured if they have the heads off then crap I'll get something out of this done. I thought about a cam too but that's kinda pushin it price wise plus I live in Cali so I think that might not pass emissions.

Anyway, my car is a 97 Camaro with just over 86,000 miles. This seems awefully low to be blowing head gaskets. I bought the car in early 2001 with 73k on it and I've kept it up pretty well. Admitally I do drive a little hard, but I don't beat on it too bad. I always warm it up properly etc. So ya ...this is a bummer :rolleyes:

[ June 04, 2004, 03:00 AM: Message edited by: camaroincal ]

[oil pan 4]

The last owner might have over heated it.
That is a lot for a head gasket, but do get the heads for a few days and P&P them if there not cracked or any thing.

[cb1101]

My head gaskets went on my bird at around 70,xxx.

It also happened two weeks before Christmas...thats what terrible timing I have! Anyway, it ended up being $1495.00 which included a 3-angle valve job which I believe was around 250-300 dollars. probably less, cant remember exactly. In your case..if you have the extra cash, get the heads worked! I was kinda talked out of it by the machine shop (dont know why) saying that the heads actually flow good enough to where head work would not show any big gains w/o a cam.... I say Do it!

[wantmorepower]

When the price tag is in the 1500 dollar range I think you should seriously consider doing the work yourself. I know that may not be possible if you don't have the tools or need the car right away. I am pretty sure that most of that 1500 dollar charge is going to be labor.

If there is only one bright side to your situation is that now is the perfect time to change your cam/upgrade the vavle train/ maybe port and polish.

Hopefully your problem will only be a bad gasket and not head or block problem.

One thing I do know is that at the first sign that your waterpump is starting to weep change it right away. Sometimes it doesn't take long at all for it to go from starting to go bad to failure and the result can be blown gasket or head/block problems.

Hope it turns out.

[CamaroRob97]

Ouch its amzing on how much labor cost it takes for headgaskets.

Im surprised you were going to pay someone to do the waterpump. I think it took me a hour to do mine. I guess its good you took it in, so you know its a blown head gasket issue also.

If I had to change my head gaskets I would deffentally P&P and do a 3 angle valve job. Springs retainers and such. Going to do it eventually anyway.

[Iwantafbodyagain]

A used engine costs like $500...............

[camaroincal]

Originally posted by wantmorepower:
When the price tag is in the 1500 dollar range I think you should seriously consider doing the work yourself. I know that may not be possible if you don't have the tools or need the car right away. I am pretty sure that most of that 1500 dollar charge is going to be labor.

If there is only one bright side to your situation is that now is the perfect time to change your cam/upgrade the vavle train/ maybe port and polish.

Hopefully your problem will only be a bad gasket and not head or block problem.

One thing I do know is that at the first sign that your waterpump is starting to weep change it right away. Sometimes it doesn't take long at all for it to go from starting to go bad to failure and the result can be blown gasket or head/block problems.

Hope it turns out.

Well also we have to consider I live in the bay area of Cali, so everything is outragrous. I didn't want to mess with changing the water pump as I'm not very mechanically inclined with cars. And it turned out to be a good thing since we might have caught the blown headgasket issue early enough where maybe not too much damage was done. My mechanic has yet to get back to me on the exact problems, he's taking off the heads etc. this morning I should be hearing sometime today the super news! [img]graemlins/popcorn.gif[/img] :rolleyes:

This was totally unexpected though and it really sucks. Lol I just changed the oil the day before to mobil 1 syn. ( 5 bucks a quart) and a mobil 1 oil filter. And that's probably no good now to according to the mechanic. So there's another 40 bucks down the drain.

[camaroincal]

Originally posted by Iwantafbodyagain:
A used engine costs like $500...............

Ya I thought about this a little bit. But even if the engine is $500, that doesn't include labor and I'd imagine taking out my engine and putting in another would be a real p.i.t.a and would take quite a long.

Plus a $500 engine might be about ready to blow it's head gaskets unless it had very low miles on it. This way atleast I know that everything will (should) be pretty good after this. I already have a fairly new alternator and some other parts.

[Magnus]

I'd get a second oppinion.

If your oil looks ok, and your coolant looks ok.. then you are not mixing fluids.

They could just be trying to get more $$$ from you.

3800's are really stout motors. I'd be curious how many shops said a 3800 had a blown head gasket when in fact they were ok just to get more business.

[camaroincal]

Originally posted by Magnus:
I'd get a second oppinion.

If your oil looks ok, and your coolant looks ok.. then you are not mixing fluids.

They could just be trying to get more $$$ from you.

3800's are really stout motors. I'd be curious how many shops said a 3800 had a blown head gasket when in fact they were ok just to get more business.

I know man it really sucks. It was a total shock to me but after he explained the tests they ran and all that it made sense. I know you know a lot about motors though, but I do not, so I kind of have to trust someone. Also I was thinking the reason I didn't notice the oil being bad is because my coolant is dirty and a little could easily blend in with the oil.

One thing that I'm really thinking about is changing to the green coolant. I'm sick of dealing with this dexcool bs. I've had nothing but problems with it and I read about other people having problems.

Another thing I've been thinking about how possibly the gasket could've fail. One thing I know is that when I have flushed the coolant I never did remove the drain plug on the engine, we always just disconnected the radiator hose and stuck a garden hose a little way down and flushed it that way.

We could never get all the crap out. My thought is that there is a ton of gunk by the plug in the engine and the water pump could've been working overtime pushing the chunks around, and over time possibly causing the gaskets to fail?

I wish I had the know how and time to do it myself, but I've seen to many times people trying to do something like this and end up taking it to a shop anyway because they can't get it right.

[Magnus]

Never use tap water for coolant, always distlled. I use green stuff and it works good. If you switch make sure you flush COMPLETELY with water.

If coolant gets in oil, even a little, you will have a milk shake. It doesn't "mix".

I'd drain the coolant completely, and the oil.. then use the hose thing like you did to completley flush the radiator, the overflow, and the engine.. flush it GOOOOOD.

Then add good oil and good green coolant with DISTILLED water..

Run it.. see if the fluids are looking all milky after a little while.. see if your engine is usign coolant..

could be a good test.

[camaroincal]

I flushed it out with hose water but I did use distilled water when refilling it, although it's been about a year since. The car is in the shop atm getting the work done, but the next time he calls for an update Im going to ask about switching to green and make sure he flushes it really good and I expecially want to make sure the coolant plug on the engine is opened up as I think it's never been done.

I wonder why GM even bothered with this Dex-cool crap anyway. Do all GM cars/trucks use it?

[camaroincal]

Mechanic called today. He took the heads off yesterday and sent them to the machine shop. I have a cracked head, but they have located a used one for me in good shape. I am just wondering, if one head was cracked, why not the other? Does it mean the other one is weakened and about to crack? Or since I'm getting a valve job etc. on it, it will be ok?

He also contacted a port and polish specialist and gave me an estimate of $400 for that. I'm gonna wait and see how much the rest is first. How much horsepower will the port and polish get me? I'm guessing like...10 flywheel horsepower? I really have no clue. Anyone else crack a head on their 3.8?

[Magnus]

did you actually see the crack?

I'd call them and tell them to do nothing until you see the crack.

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

no one has really tested HP gain with only swapping out heads and nothing else

but in tense says theres from 30-60

i would say 20-60 depending on mods. and how good the do them