Blown Head gasket

**Orrin's Z** · 10-09-2008, 05:15 AM

Well Found another puddle under the car yesterday. thought it was the heater core, but it was leaking water out of the right most furthiest bolt. well i belive it is the head gasket, there is no water in the oil or in the cylinder.

so my question is if i do one side should i do both? the engine over heated from when the water pump went out a few months ago..... and i have been raving high in first to shift in to third (second is out)

next step is to take the trany out

i love this car but at the time i want to

and

the damn thing.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

**Wesman** · 10-09-2008, 09:07 AM

If you have to pull the heads, just look at it from a positive point of view, you can fix the problem and upgrade to a better set of heads/cam at the same time

No sense in doing the whole job only to put the old heads back on, there are tons of options in every price range, everything from an LS6 H/C swap that will give you 60WHP with no loss of fuel economy or driveability to full out Stage III H/C packages that will put you up around 500WHP.

You could probably pick up a set of used LS6 heads for pretty cheap too, if you're really on a budget. At the very least though do both head gaskets, no sense pulling everything apart only to do one side.

**Orcus79** · 10-09-2008, 04:08 PM

Also even with 2nd gear out you don;t need to rec it very high to get 3rd, I have skiped from 1 to 3 many times shifting at 1800 or so RPM.

I second Wesman. If you have to crack it open to do the heads might as well do it all and do what you can afford. Dont forget the valve train. It would be a perfect time to upgrade it and change out the push rods to hardened units.

**Blackbird WS6** · 10-09-2008, 04:36 PM

**RAWPWR3** · 10-09-2008, 05:26 PM

Are you 100% sure its youre head gasket? Is youre exhaust blowing white smoke, is youre coolant level dropping? Pull some of the plugs out on the bank that you think has got the blown gasket and compare them to a plug out of the known good bank. If the ones in question appear to be really clean, it could be that coolant is entering the cylinder and is being burned, which in turn would cause youre plugs to be "steam" cleaned. Even if white smoke isnt coming out of youre exhaust, a small amount of coolant being burned would cause this steam cleaning effect. Maybe it could just be an old cracked coolant line or a loose clamp thats dripping onto the head bolt? These are just some other things to think about, im only trying to help. Either way, good luck with it!

**Hi-Po** · 10-09-2008, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by Wesman

If you have to pull the heads, just look at it from a positive point of view, you can fix the problem and upgrade to a better set of heads/cam at the same time

No sense in doing the whole job only to put the old heads back on, there are tons of options in every price range, everything from an LS6 H/C swap that will give you 60WHP with no loss of fuel economy or driveability to full out Stage III H/C packages that will put you up around 500WHP.

You could probably pick up a set of used LS6 heads for pretty cheap too, if you're really on a budget. At the very least though do both head gaskets, no sense pulling everything apart only to do one side.

Stage 3 heads will not work on 3.9 bore. They are for 4.o bore or larger. Turn that W into an F also, even with stage 2's on stock cube LS1's.

If you over heated your engine, you more then likely warped the deck or the head, right? Thus the leak. Someone correct me if im wrong.

**RAWPWR3** · 10-09-2008, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by Hi-Po

If you over heated your engine, you more then likely warped the deck or the head, right? Thus the leak. Someone correct me if im wrong.

Yes, this is also very possible, but if he only ran the engine a little longer it might not have done that much damage, these motors run pretty hot to begin with. And ive heard of similar cases with failing water pumps, were the operator continued driving, and the motor has reached 260*'s, and it turned out to be fine. And if warpage is the case, then hes definatley gonna need new heads, not just gaskets. And while theyre off you might want to check the deck of the block for straightness as well. I was only trying to explore all aspects of this scenario so he could be totally sure before he tears into his motor. And you were in no way wrong good sir.

**Orrin's Z** · 10-10-2008, 05:52 AM

I am going to take both heads off and have them rehoned, just incase they did get warped....i would like a new set of heads but the budget with a two year old is kinda tight.

I got one head off... i will try to post pic's to help.