[Chris7130]

97 Monte LS.

If you read my sig you'll see I have already replaced a lot on my car. Well the warrenty I had on the refurbished engine, as Jasper likes to call it, ran out a few months ago. Guess what happens? As the topic says head gasket. I was to pissed to exactly remember what happened but it wasn't blown so no other damage was done but needed replaced I believe.

I just remember hearing the $1,200 repair bill it would cost.

Considering that's nearly half the value of the car not to mention all I've dropped in it just trying to get it alive or bring it back to life, it's got me wondering what the next step should be...

I'll post later on results and possibly what exactly happened.

cross your fingers for me

[Brendensmonte]

get a haynes repair manual and do it urself, I did mine in a few days and the gasket kit was $300 it came with every gasket to the car so it was nice. wait i lied gasket kit was a little cheaper because I did get the heads machined when I bought that all together it was $300 -somthing. Pretty easy work with the manual, im not that great with cars but it helped alot. Car ran strong for another year till the tranny went, by that time it needed so much more to pass inspection i just junked it. engine had 180xxx mi i did the gasket change at 165xxx still ran fine other than a blocked egr path from carbon buildup in the plenum. well hope you can manage without spending an assload.

This post has been edited by Brendensmonte: 03 March 2010 - 04:17 AM

[me6894]

Headgaskets on these motors are probably some of the easiest to do. Like said above get a manual and do it yourself.

What makes you say the headgasket is blown anyways? Did they do a compression or block test on it?

[Chris7130]

Well the end result I'm still not totally sure what happened but it's fixed. I'm am not even remotely inclined enough to work on an engine and top it off with my luck it would be a nightmare. My dad is a lot better with mechanical things but he didn't want to either.

From what I gathered the head gasket was leaking. Like I said it wasn't blown and didn't seem to cause any damage. I remember the mechanic saying something about a compression ring? (remember I have no clue here). I am just lucky to have a really old school mechanic that is honest and knows what he's doing.

The car is back and running though. I've been babying it though. And that's where it is for now....