Blew a head gasket.....

[Tundrahog]

Its a 3.8....still a bummer though.

Haven't looked at the "good book" yet to see whats involved in changing it.

Anyone ever change one on a 3.8? Thanks

[Joe 1320]

Well, yes and no. My T/A has the LT1 and I just did the headgaskets and I've done the 3.8 in my GN a few times. Currently building a killer 109 block 3.8. What do you want to know?

[Tundrahog]

Time involved? Money $$ How many scars on your knuckles? Any help I'll do. Thanks.....

[Rob]

Its not that bad if you take your time. Get new bolts as they are torque to yield and can't be reused. Figure 8 hours taking it easy. Half that for a quickie

[Joe 1320]

Yeah, it takes me about 8 hours to do an upper teardown, 2 head gaskets and a reassembly. It is very straight foreward, but I wouldn't suggest doing it without a manual unless you've done it before. I prefer a multi step head bolt sequence. I start by torquing each bolt in the proper sequence to 10 ft/lb, then each bolt an addition 10 ft/lb until finally reaching final torque figures. As was already mentioned, torque to yield bolts shouldn't be reused, so you cannot retorque after a few warm up cycles, that is why I prefer the multi-step. total cost is probably $185 for headgaskets and associated gaskets. Usually you can pick up a "headgasket kit" that contains all the associated stuff to do a change. Head bolts are not included and typically run about $10 per head.