Blown Head Gasket

[Joshu]

It's offical, I have blown a head gasket. The guy up here at AMMCO (think thats it) wants $1,700 to fix that and new radiator and flush about everything out. I think thats a bit excessive.

SO

My cousin is a talented mechanic and we're probably just gonna drop a new engine and tranny in it (V8 LT1 preffered since an LS1 is a bit expensive). If the V8 is too expensive ill just find another V6. But since dropping an 8 in requires several other things to be changed around I won't know whats going on til he finds me a price.

Whadda ya think?

[Joe 1320]

Headgaskets will take about 12 hours labor and $100 in parts. Too bad you can't do it yourself.

[Joshu]

i know, even if i had the tools, im in my college town and not home

looks like its gettin an LT1

[TraceZ]

i know, even if i had the tools, im in my college town and not home

looks like its gettin an LT1

If you dont want to spend the $$ to replace the headgaskets, and cant work on the car yourself you will be seriously getting in over your head trying to transplant an LT1 into it. There is way more involved in that swap than you are thinking.

Plan on replacing nearly every single moving part in the car. You really should buy a wrecked LT1 car to transfer the parts from. You will need tons of parts and buying them all individually will cost more than the car is worth.

You will need:

- LT1 engine, complete and running with accessories, belt, water pump, ignition and some hoses, intake tube/elbow
- Transmission - the V6 tranny will not work.
- K-member
- transmission crossmember
- engine mounts
- driveshaft (the V6 driveshaft is 2-piece)
- engine wiring harness
- PCM
- radiator and hoses
- gauge cluster for dash (the V6 tachometer will not work with the V8)
- Limited slip disc brake rear differential
- exhaust manifolds / headers
- y-pipe
- catback exhaust (the V6 exhaust is too restrictive)
- fuel lines
- front suspension springs (the heavy V8 will cause the V6 springs to sag)
- front and rear anti-sway bars (the V8 cars got stiffer bars)

and many other odds-n-ends parts.

[Joshu]

thanks for the imput Tracy, I'll know more tomorrow. I just dont want to pour a small fortune into this to end up with what I had before. We'll see how it works out.

[Mark B]

"I just dont want to pour a small fortune into this to end up with what I had before"

Welcome to the joys of owning a car & not being able to work on it yourself.

[Joshu]

Ok, I'm back from fantasyland and have forgotten about putting the LT1 in.
We are just gonna rebuild the current 3.4. How many man hours are we looking at just fixing the blown head gasket, new thermostat, and water pump alone (roughly)?

[Choppers]

water pump and thermostat is only probably an hour. Maybe 8 hours for the whole motor if you know what your doing.

[fastTa]

Ok, I'm back from fantasyland and have forgotten about putting the LT1 in.
We are just gonna rebuild the current 3.4. How many man hours are we looking at just fixing the blown head gasket, new thermostat, and water pump alone (roughly)?

The book calls for like 7-8 hours for the headgasket, but if this is your first time doing something like this, it could be a nice weekend project.

Take your time, and if this is your first time doing this, here is a little piece of advive that will save you a large headache. Get a box of ziplock or sandwich bags and put the bolts and hardware that you remove in them. For example when you remove water pump bolts, put them into 1 bag and label that bag "Water Pump bolts" or something to that effect.

Once you wrench enough you will just know where the bolts go.