Crap. The 93 Z blew a headgasket.

[Joe 1320]

The girlfriend was driving the car to work, everything in the guage cluster lights up and the car dies. I get it towed back home, check it and there's no coolant. I fill it up, notice the coolant level sensor is unseated. I fix it, refill and fire it up.... pressue starts building almost blowing the lid off. Use the pressure tester and there was a rhythmic spike in the pressure timed with an exhaust event. That folks is the sign of a blown headgasket. Grrrr....

The 94 Camaro is down with broken EGR studs, that's a R&R of the manifold. Actually, I picked up a set of ceramic coated RKsport headers dirt cheap to swap in but it's sitting. Now the 93 Z blows the gasket and wouldn't you know it, the 97 T/A starts illuminating the brake light...... time for a master cylinder. Crap, it's all hitting at one time. Oh well, not the first time. I wasn't planning on Thanksgiving being a mechanical thrash session.

[Joshu]

Hey, good luck with that. Since you're experienced you should not have a problem, unlike the 900 issues I had doing the gaskets. Just something you gotta do on a 13 year old car. Good luck and have a relaxing Thanksgiving dinner!

[Trash man]

might as we rebuild the top end then, make it a lil more peppy even?

[Rhode Island Red]

that really sucks. When my 78 Grand LeMans blew a head gasket, me and my dad double teamed the job and had the car completed over a weekend . OF course, it had lots of space, and much simpler setup than today's computer controlled engines.

What do you think caused the gasket to blow? I'm thinking age and time (reason for my 78's gasket to blow). While you're at it you're probably better off replacing both sides at once as this is better than getting the car on the road, and two weeks later, having the other head blow. While you're at it, inspect the engine's other gaskets also. Odds are they were all put on around the same time.

[Steel2686]

That is not what you wanted for Thanksgiving weekend, I'm sure.

At least you are a capable mechanic. Imagine paying someone for all three cars to be fixed? That should make you feel somewhat better.... Somewhat.

[wolfdogs]

long as YOU dont blow one.........the car can be fixed

go git er done.........

[Mark B]

If it breaks... Build it faster!!!

[Joe 1320]

Welp.......

I think the thanksgiving mechanical thrash is going to be the ceramic coated headers for the 94, at least I know I should be able to bang that out in an afternoon without much fuss. The headgaskets on the 93 would take me about 10hrs and I'm not going to spend thanksgiving doing that. I'll just pull the 93 into the garage and take care of it in stages. Project 93 will likely stay stock. I wasn't planning on getting wild with it, the intent was for the car to be a budget cruiser with good highway gas mileage. At least I can fix the cold start exhaust leak on the passenger side. It would seal up fine when the exhaust got warm, just a slight tick when cold.

The 94 Camaro has turned out to be such a jewel. It's a 3.4 5 speed, 3.42 posi rear and disks, 1LE driveshaft, KYB shocks, 1LE springs and swaybars, SLP cold air intake, borla, and soon the headers. It pulls decent for a V6 but handles like an autocross champion. The weight distribution combined with the suspension makes this haul through the corners. The grip with 285/40/17s on all four corners is amazing considering it has a solid rear. I can consistantly negotiate a series of S corners at 2-3 MPH faster in this car than in my WS6 using the same wheels and tires. No power windows, no power locks, no t-tops, no power seats..... a real lightweight stripper. Cheap insurance and 28 mpg.

I suppose this is a blessing in disguise. I get to take time off work, spend it with family as well as twisting wrenches doing something that we love. Life is what you make of it, and life is great.

[Dave Vince]

Seems like a common problem for the LT1, thats the main reason that I did a rebuild on mine. Its a good time to add some speed parts.

[Shockwav86]

how many miles on that lt-1 that blew a head gasket? I got 74k on mine

[Joe 1320]

how many miles on that lt-1 that blew a head gasket? I got 74k on mine

I have double that.

[Joshu]

On my 6 it went at 128 grand...

[Joe 1320]

On my 6 it went at 128 grand...

And yet my 94 has over 170K and still runs great. Never been opened up.

[Joshu]

And yet my 94 has over 170K and still runs great. Never been opened up.

And I bet you took really good care of it. Mine was abused like you wouldn't beleive
But it looks really good since I started nursing it back to health!