For those of you who have done it how hard is it to replace the fire wall side head gasket? I am going to have a leak down test done in the near future but it seems like my rear head gasket is blown. How much harder is this than just getting down to the rear valve cover (I have done this many times, but never gone any further)? I will read my manual when I get home from work but I would like to have some opinions on how much harder/time consuming it would be. Also any helpful tips. Thanks.

-Carson

**this is on a 95 GXE

 

its a big pain in the a$$... have fun and buy the hanes manual

 

difficulty I'm not sure about but, I've always heard when a head gaskets goes, its easier to replace the motor. Have you given anythought to this or would rather go with the gasket?

 

It's really a money thing right now. I have only had the car for about 2 months now. I was hoping the motor would last for a year or two until I could justify putting a 3.5 in it.
Like I said I will read the manual later when I get home, but does anyone have any insight on how much more work is required one you get down to the valve cover?

 

i is defintely either an allday job or a weekend joob depending on your DIY know how. If you have blown a head gasket you may really want to consider the miles on your motor and think about doing the front and timing chain as well. it realy depends on miles though. i did everything on mine and it was a weekend job with my brother and dad helping me out. made for slower time since we were bull****ting around in the garage

 

its not that hard if you know what you doing, otherwise let someone else do it, cause if you get stuck on something or you don't have the right tools, you will get mad at yourself.

 

Not difficult. But a big pain to do. If you have 2 cars and have more time than $, just take your time. But a replacement low miler VQ30 is only about $300-$400. You might spend more than that in gaskets and parts while you have the front of the engine torn down

 

it's a lot of work. You have to remove the timing chain cover, timing chain, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, some vacuum lines, some electrical connectors

Go read the FSM, it's much better than the haynes manual.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...sm/a32-for.pdf

It'd be easier and faster to swap in a different engine. A DE-K swap would probably be faster than changing the head gasket. A 3.5 swap would be nice, but it's much more expensive and time-consuming than your other options.

If you choose to keep your engine and change the head gasket, you might as well do both of them at the same time and take both heads and have them resurfaced at a machine shop. It's very important that you tighten the head bolts in the correct order with the correct torque when you put the head(s) back on.

 

Why not keep the exhaust manifold on and lift it off with the head?

 

Doesn't matter. You'll either have to remove the exhaust manifold from the y-pipe or remove the exhaust manifold from the head.

 

I'd much rather just remove the Y vs having to remove all those bolts from the head.

 

I set up an appointment for Sat. morning to have a coolant system test...its only 20 bucks and it will lay my speculation to rest. Also I replaced the radiator cap last night and it did not help at all...oh well

 

good luck. hope it works out for you economically

 

well bare minimum gasket/seals you would need will run you @25% off list price would be $105. at list price you will pay around $150.

thats for:
both head gaskets
2 orings behind the timing chain cover. (known to leak)
valve cover gaskets.
front crank seal
2 oring seals in upper oil pan.

depending on mileage you may want to check water pump,t stat, t chain + tensioners.

im thinking if your gonna pay for labor on this you will be paying about the same for a head gasket job and a motor swap the price difference would be in parts.

just some numbers for you. im stuck at work till 8pm and had nothing to do so i looked up some parts pricing for you. Socal guys if they get parts from me i usually give 25% discount from manufacturers list price and not dealer list price.

 

I'd just do a DE-k swap. You can buy a DE-K for $350 w/35k miles on it from car-part.com. Add $150 shipping and you're at $500.

Gasket set will cost you $125-$150 and resurfacing the heads will cost $50-$100. For $300 more, you could have a nearly new engine with 32 more hp. With the DE-K swap, there's not much to mess up either since you won't have to mess with the internals of the engine at all. If you don't do the head gasket job right, you could ruin the engine.

 

yeah I see what you are saying. The bad thing about this is that I just put a water pump on the car as soon as I got it. I just want to waste as little money as possible.