blown head gasket

[DirtyBird17]

hey guys, i just found out that i probably have a bown head gaskeet. my car has been overheating lately and my oil looks like a chocolate shake. my question is, how hard is it to replace one of these bad boys, my uncle is gonna help me cause he has done many hot rods but i wanna know if we can do it or if we should just take it to a shop. if we can't do it i'm sellin' the car cause i'm tired of fixin' stuff on it. thanks y'all

[cb1101]

bro, sorry to hear bout the car....the xact same thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago..i just got it back from a blown gasket...it is a pain in the *** job to do. its about a 10-12 hour labor job and everything has to be torqued correctly or your screwed..
the reason my gasket was bad was because the head bolt broke in the engine from all the heat i suppose. and it had to be drilled out. if you have the money i would say do it, but if you dont, try it yourself if you have the time. my car is runnin like brand new, with a lotta heat
and it only cost $1500 [img]graemlins/omg.gif[/img] but that also included the valve job i got done with it [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[3.4 slow to go]

$1500, that's a whole new motor!!!! Lets hope it's just a head gasket & not a cracked block like I ended up with. The person I bought it from said " It's just a blown head gasket & I don't know how to do it. I boughgt it, tore it down & discovered mre than a blown gasket. My wife was talking to the dudes wife & she said " Yeah, the block cracked while I was driving it" The fargin bastages could've told me this first so I could have been saving up for a new(used) motor before this :mad: , well good luck in your repair.

[bluecmaro96]

1500.00 wow did you bend over to make their job of scr**ing you in the rear easier? he** im getting my motor bored .030 over getting forged full floating pin pistons and rings oil pump assemble of block rocker arms and a whole lot of other stuff done for 1400.00 i dont have list right now but im getting a great deal, its nice to not get raped by mechanics hope your [img]graemlins/monkey.gif[/img] feels better soon j/k [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[DirtyBird17]

thanks guys, i just called the repair place and they said they would do both head gaskets for $550. i don't wanna mess with it so i'll just sell the car for $5000 and tell the person where i got it quoted from. sorry to hear you had to pay $1500 for a head gasket, hopefully most of that was the calve job.

[cb1101]

here is exactly how i paid $1500-

PART PRICE LABOR
felpro head gasket set $117 $780 (12hrs)
oil change $16
thermostat $9.35
pcv valve $7.14
coolant(2gal. $16
head bolts (from chevy) $72.52

MACHINE SHOP
milled heads
3way valve job....... $357

TOTAL COST OF EVERYTHING
LABOR.............$780.00
PARTS.............$235.96
SUPPLY CHARGE.....$15.00
OUTSIDE SERVICE...$357.50 (milled heads/valves)
SALES TAX.........$101.10


TOTAL.............$1495.56

when you do a job like this, you cant do it half *** ...true most mechanics will make money off you...but at 65 an hour for labor, whichis a base price..you all know damn well that it doesnt take 3 hours for a head gasket job....it was 1100 originally but i also wanted the valves done which cost more money obvioulsy..but who gives a [img]graemlins/monkey.gif[/img] thejob is dne and my car is runnig better then ever! ;)

[3.4 slow to go]

you got a point, your car runs, and mine doesn't :mad: :rolleyes:

[strange_trp]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by cb1101:
..you all know damn well that it doesnt take 3 hours for a head gasket job<hr></blockquote>


i also know damn well it didn't take the mechanic all those labor hours to do the job. maybe half if he's done one or two before on that particular application. but still, $65 hour is not a bad labor rate (for a dealership.)

[bluecmaro96]

i agree with strange no way did it take a professional 12 hrs to do that, maybe 5-6 actual work and the rest talking about " it almost makes me feels bad ripping this kid off that owns this camaro, nah i feel great taking all his money" holy crap [img]graemlins/omg.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/omg.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/omg.gif[/img] 65.00 hr for labor?? its 45.00 around here, pa oh the guy doin my work has worked on cars for over 20 years he knows what hes doing, he gives good deals cuz he wants customers 2 return

[MustangEater8251]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by cb1101:
here is exactly how i paid $1500

<hr></blockquote>


Jsut curious what your car runs? Looks like you might have a stronger 3.4L.

[black34v6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by DirtyBird17:
thanks guys, i just called the repair place and they said they would do both head gaskets for $550. i don't wanna mess with it so i'll just sell the car for $5000 and tell the person where i got it quoted from. sorry to hear you had to pay $1500 for a head gasket, hopefully most of that was the calve job.<hr></blockquote>

wow..5000. w/a dead engine??

good luck on that one. i dont think i know anyone that would pay that for the engine.

fyi. i did the mazda i own a while back, changed the head gasket i mean, and it wasnt that big a deal. ive taken the top end of the car off of my 1994 3.4L before, and it still doesnt seem like it would be that big a deal. but..i could be wrong. anyway..if you wanna sell your car over the blown headgasket thats cool..of course, for another 500.00 you could get the whole engine rebuilt..or..for 500.00 you can get a motor from a junkyard and just drop the sucker in. and then youd have something to play with ;)

anyway..i doubt you will be able to sell it for 5k. considering it would take 500 to fix, at least deduct that cost from the price of the car.

-R

[cb1101]

i never actually ran it at the track before...but i beat my brother's girls SI w/ an intake all the time [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[Jayy]

last time i blew a head gasket on my 3.4 was because a head bolt snapped. i was coming up 795 in md when the temp gauge went red. called one of my friends and we towed it to my garage. only took us about 4 hours to fix. course that included time needed to gather parts, get beer, etc.

[TurboKillaZ]

1500 damn a nice rip off,I had a blown gasket and after calling 5-6 shops they all wanted around 1000-1500 dollars to fix it,so I found some mexican guys they had a garage and they fixed it for $300 dollars [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[1999 Camaro RJS3800]

Someone's been playing Paleontologist....