Cry... Blown Head Gasket

[Prospeeder]

Man! i blew my head gasket i think in the 6000. I was accelerating up my hill and it lost power and i pulled in my parking spot, smelled so bad, and it was running horible, and was kinda loud. I shut it off, then left it abit, went out, checked the fluilds, all clean, and full, and I started it, well it turned over like a car with no compression and took a LONG time to start, coughed, sputtered, blew out Oil smoke, then white coolant smoke. The cooling system had no pressure. I think it was my radiator cap or thermostat, my temp light doesnt work, and now it came back and bit me in the ass....It compression tested great a few weeks ago. This sucks!!!

Any tips or things to look out for? 3.1L V6 w/ 220k on it, but before gasket, it compression tested 180 psi, and it had a few lifters clackin, its worth fixin right? I get a HUGE discount at napa on parts and i am gonna do it myself.

[notsoslimshady76]

As long as you have the time, then yeah go ahead and fix it

[Pontiac6ksteawd]

3400 swap would be a good place to start. You can still find those motors with low miles. I think its pretty straight forward too. Would have to ask the guy over on the W-body board thou, he did that swap in his 88 GP 5 speed (barn find).

Nothing really to watch out for. With the 3.1 and the 2.8, when a gasket goes, just fix it. But since you are looking at the miles factor here, this is why I suggested the engine swap. Also since you are looking at head work since you have the valvetrain clatter.

[SCREECH]

I get a HUGE discount at napa on parts and i am gonna do it myself.
I'd be interested to see if you could get your parts any cheaper than at RockAuto (http://www.rockauto.com/index.php?a=screech.ws). I've been dealing with them for a while now and nobody, but NOBODY has been able to match their prices, even with shipping factored in. Like I said, I'd be interested to hear if you were actually able to get parts any cheaper - even places that I've been dealing with for years and get a good discount haven't matched their prices, not even close in most cases!

[86euro]

3400 swap would be a good place to start. You can still find those motors with low miles. I think its pretty straight forward too. Would have to ask the guy over on the W-body board thou, he did that swap in his 88 GP 5 speed (barn find).

I don't know why, but last time I checked Car-Part, the 3500's were selling for nearly half as much as the 3400's. Even after figuring the added expense of swapping a 3500, total cost was about the same as a 3400, but with more power.

[dagr8tim]

I'd be interested to see if you could get your parts any cheaper than at RockAuto (http://www.rockauto.com/index.php?a=screech.ws). I've been dealing with them for a while now and nobody, but NOBODY has been able to match their prices, even with shipping factored in. Like I said, I'd be interested to hear if you were actually able to get parts any cheaper - even places that I've been dealing with for years and get a good discount haven't matched their prices, not even close in most cases!

I hear ya on that. If you look around, you can also usually fined coupons for like 5% or 10% off. That usually covers my shipping.

Rock auto is where I got all of the parts to do the intake manifold on my Grand Marquis. I priced the stuff out from Advance and came to over $800. It was under $400 from Rock Auto.

[Prospeeder]

I need this car bad, my parents said theyed pay for it, if I did the bare minimum, gaskets, heads shaved, water pump, thermostat, rad cap, thermo switch to get my temp light working. I cannot swap a engine right now, no place to do it.

[SCREECH]

If you are going to proceed with purchasing parts to do all that work, swing by SCREECH.WS as I've got a discount code that RockAuto sent me that's good into February 2009. Just though y'all would be interested to know.

[Prospeeder]

Ok i made a connection, when i got the car, the radiator was rotton, then shortly after i replaced it, the heater core rotted out. So my guess is this car had a badly neglected cooling system, and it has corrded the headgasket, and it weakend it untill it popped. I notice oil/coolant leakage from outside of both cylinder heads where they meet the block. Also I remember when I just shut the car off when it blew the gasket, the top of the engine wasnt even hot, and the radiator felt pretty normal, and i herd no boiling. So i dont belive the car overheated.I will remove the bolts slowly in the opposite way they are tightend
Im going to take the heads, run a straight edge on them and if they look ok, im using them, Im not going to have them decked if they dont need it. Its 70+ dollars that if i can cut i will. Its total 201$ for

Headset - inclueds new headbolts Only 53 bucks my price! includes Valve cover, upper and lower intake, exhaust, TB, egr, and another one i forgot
Exhaust pipe gasket
Black RTV
Radiator cap
Thermostat
Water Pump -New only 14$ my price
2 Gallons of straight antifreeze
4 quarts of oil, a bottle of lucas, and a filter - Only 20$
Gasket remover
Gasket scraper
A disk used for surface prep to make gasket removal easier, it sucks i had to buy a stupid adapter kit - ;( 15$ for this crap)
Think im all set, Were towing it to my dads to use his garage and have thanksgiving, wish me luck and pray the heads are flat!

[Pontiac6ksteawd]

Another thing to do while you have the heads off is to take a pipe cleaner reamer thingy, and prope them thru the coolant passages. I imagine you probly have quite the gunky build up in there, and this will help keep her cool. While your reaming it out, have some water, if you can, pushing thru the cooling system to blow the gunk up and out when you remove the reamer.

[86euro]

Replace the oil pump drive plug seal while you're in there. You may be temped to change the lifters, but be forewarned that the parts store replacements often (usually) tick just as loud as the originals- no matter how long you soak them in oil beforehand.

[Prospeeder]

Well i found out the ticking! A intake lifter was in 3 peices, completly mangled and fed up. Also i broke off the quick dissconnect fitting, wtf do i do!!! Iv tried heating it up like 10 times, and trying to turn it out with a screw driver wedged in there, it wont budge for nothing. I really wanted to finish this, but this stupid thing broke, it was leaking badly before. Headgaskets have been leaking into the vally, there was about 1-2 inches of carbon just like perfectly sticking off the side of the head gaskets.

[Prospeeder]

Well shes fixed! That lifter that broke was definatly the noise, it runs so quiet now, and it runs great, no leaks nothin! Im so happy!!

[86euro]

Good deal! Did you replace all the lifters or just the broken one? What brand was it (or them)?

[Prospeeder]

just the one, its a sealed power brand, and it was 7.39 for one, I was 100 miles away, no one in omak had one, no only one store had one from where i lived, so i took it and had a friend bring it up to me, so no i wasnt gonna do all of them, lol. But absolutly no clicking or clacking any more. I think i did pretty good, started right up the first time, and the only leak was the upper rad hose neeed tightend abit more.