Blew a Head Gasket
 

Last night on the highway my camaro started to overheat. I pulled over the minute the temp shot up and got it towed to the shop. Well apparently something happened with the radiator to cause this, not that big of a problem.

The bigger problem was found after that was fixed, I blew a head gasket.

Now, I was wondering what my options are here as far as getting it fixed. I was told the only parts needed were the Gasket Kit and Head bolts but the real cost of it was the 15.5 - 16 hours of labor needed.

Is there any better approach to getting this fixed?

Thanks.

yea, head gaskets cost kinda alot but most of the price will be the labor. that really sucks. shop around and look for the best price is my only advice or you can do it yourself if you are confident with yourself and know what to do. either way good luck.

take it from me..i blew a head gasket a week after i got the car and it cost me alot to get it fixed.I saved a lot of money by doing it myself.The things i suggest u do before attempting such a big job is investing in a chilton repair manual from autozone or murrays.Do as much reading as u can to familarize urself with all the
tools and parts needed to do the job right!Next u could do a compression check to find which head gasket is leaking...that could save money.Here is a list of things that u will need or u will have to pay close attention to so u can do a good job.
buy new head bolts or use a tap and die set to clean each bolt thread of sealant.Make sure u run a tap down each head bolt hole to remove any debris
that can cause false torque readings.
make sure u use thread sealant (white stuff)on each bolt.
Torque wrench is a must
new sets of head,intake,exhaust manifold,and valve cover gaskets.
u would need a can of wd40 for the exhaust bolts..because they will be a ***** to take off
u wanna take u heads to a good machine/engine shop to check for cracks/valve leaks and to resurface the heads..it cost me 400 dollars.
when u install the heads make sure u line the heads up with the dowl pins on the block.this will insure the heads are lined up on the block.
This next step i didnt do and it cost me a more money since i didnt research ahead of time.
first when installing the head bolts make sure u use plenty of thread sealant on each bolt starting at the bottom and go up about 4 or 5 threads...
tighten each bolt by hand. Once this is done u have to torque the bolts in 3 sequences to insure a tight gasket seal between the head and block
the final torque must be 65 ft lbs (u guys correct me if Im wrong)
anyway im sure i missed a few things but if u have question feel free to ask

do it yourself

Too bad you weren't right around the corner, since I can be done to the bare heads in my car in about 2 hours, I'm sure your car would be a little harder but still the same thing...

If one head gasket went, I would replace both. You are really close as it is, only another hour to mess around with the other manifold.

-Another thing you want is new head bolts. Head bolts are torque-yield bolts and should only be used once, once they are torqued, they are streched.

If you have the $$ to pay someone to do it- take that money and buy some headers while you are at it. That way you can just cut your manifolds out of the way, saving trying to undo the y-pipe bolts. If you live in a non-emissions area you might as well pull the EGR stuff, cleans up the engine bay and makes tear-down the next time that much easier.

You are looking at probably at least $100 to get the gaskets, another $50 for head bolts, plus whatever else gets broken along the way.

Feel free to post any other questions along the way, there are many here that have dived into the motor more than once..

Already baught some Jet Hot Long Tubes w/ matching ORY. They still waiting to go in :(

awesome

Well, semi good news.

The shop that was going to install my headers for me said that if I had them do repair the head gasket and the headers at the same time that most of the labor from the headers would overlap the labor from the head gasket repair so I would save a lot of money there.

good good

Be carful with a blown head gasket. Check the head themselves. They maight be damaged and if it's worse case senario you might have roasted a cylinder or two. I'll cross my fingers for yah.

yep make sure they have the heads checked out

you can put about 2 packs of stop leak in your radiator and this will seal it up but only temporarily

Dont trust that ****, its not worth it. A buddy of mine used that CR2 stop leak stuff and it blocked everything up after a few miles, he needed a whole new top end after that it sucked.

he could have sewed for that

i drove with that stuff in my car the whole summer...but everytime i would try to drive the car hard that block seal blew out and overheated numerous times before,i realized that the bolts was the source of the problem!