Thread: need some serious help: blown headgasket

make sure in this "kit" that smaller things like exhaust manifold gaskets valvecover gaskets thermostat gasket are in there

chilton or haynes books or bolth
you will need a torque wrench
permatex blue rtv form a gasket
penetrating oil<depends on how stubborn the exhaust nuts are>
antiseize lubricant is a good idea on the exhaust studs
before dissassemplby and before reassembly
also good 4 spark plugs and stuff
ops almost 4 got should you need to remove the exhaust maniflg from the car compleatly to do this don't ferget the donut gasket between the collector and the rest of the exhaust pipe <the books will show more >

oh yeah since you will betaking the intack manifold off make sure the intake gaskets are there i have picked up many different kits for diff engines and by diff manufacturors and they almost all do not include one gasket or another

you could look in a jegs or summit racing catalog for gasket kids in your year anf c.i.d of motor might save a few or go look at the recent website i ran across

http://www.expressautoparts.com/
i have yet to buy from them but the prices seem good

and no just cause a head gasket let go doesn not mean the whole motor is crap now
that all depends on if water got in the oil <pull the stick it wil look like milk almost if it did>
that dependng on how long it was drivin like that could just be as simple as a few oild changes to flush it out
another factor is did it overheat? if so how bad and for how long


when you go to put the intake back on at the front and rear of the enne block there is a lip thats is supposed to have 1 rubber seal there
my self i toss em in the garbage and make about a 1/4 or bigger bead of blue silicon rtv form a gasket <your application may need more or less> in place of the rubber ones it just helps save some headache at least for me to do that instead of the ruber strips that seem to have a tendancy to either leak oil or blow out sometimes

also on the actual intake manifold gaskets locate the ports for the water passages and put a little tiny smear of same rtv around just the water passages not too much or it will squish out and u get rtv bits in the engine or cooling system

if you pull the distributor cap off mark on the manifold where the rotor is pointing and make a match mark on the distributor caseing and the inatake manifold now as long as you do not rotate the motor while your doing all this work you should be able to just drop the dist back in to the same or close to same timing it had when it was runing then you can reset the timming when its all running again

oh yeah spray some penetrating ol like aerokroil or some other known good stuff on the exhaust manifold bolts and go have a beer <or pop your preference> whilst you wait for it to creep in

hope some of this helps

btw
what makes you say head gasket?

Originally posted by oddcomp

btw
what makes you say head gasket?

was on the road, temp light became erradic, radiator was empty



I have a Haynes manual, trying to figure out where the headgasket info is in here

well check the oil too see if it went in there als look around the front of the water pump and see if the water pump just went out samll weep hole under the front of it it should be dry i will look into somestuff when i get home from owrk gmie the year make and model and if can reach y main system i have a program i umm <found online> that is better than almost any car book
4 now i gottta get ready

oil was milkyish, nothing coming from the water pump

car is a 1984 chevy caprice classic 305 v8

thanks alot for the help

milkyish as in more black than anything or starting to look like a rootbeer float?another quick test is to refill with water and leave the radiator cap off and run the engine and see if you otice any bubble burps or anyother sign os air being forced into cooling system <a few burps will be normal until its compleatly full> but you should not see any foam or lots of bubbles alos in the book there is no specific section for headgasket replacement but the genral idea is in the engine rebuild section
also go get a compression tester pull al the plugs <and the hot lead from the coil and test all the cylinders the bank with the lowest reading will be the side thats bad and on that side sqirt a little motor oil into the spark plug holes and recheck the readings hopefully the presure does not go up significantly a few pounds is ok <just checks to make sure the the piston rings are sealing ok > dam i gotta head t wor i wll see if i can reach my main puter and look up some info <in the process of moving so stuff is not so readily useable
and no problem most of the time i work on carz 4 fun <demented huh>

Get loads of Zip-lock bags and a perminent marker, and put the nuts in them as you take them off. That way you can easilly put it back together, or alternatively you can do what I do, and got to a bolt company and buy bags all the common bolts on your car, that way when I loose one down the back of the engine bay I can just get a spare of the shelf.

Before you put it all back together, it's also worth checking the face of the cyclinder head with a straight edge and getting it skimmed if it's warped.

Did a head gasket on my old car (Austin Maestro) a couple of times (once for a blown valve, other time for 4 new pistons, valve reseat and a set of big end shells). It had a reskim then.


Rob

looks like i'll be working on this most all day tommorrow (fun)

thank you all for the advice, now I just need a second person to help me lift the head off.