Phoenix Gold Phorum

My wife has had some issues w/her car for the past year. As I look back now I can see. Hindsight is 20/20 right? When it was time for the oil to be changed the car always showed it needed oil added. I didn't think to much of it so I started to put in 5 1/2 quarts in instead of 5 and the problem stopped.

Well about two months ago it started saying low coolant and would spit out what I'd add. So in short = blown head gasket. Luckily it didn't over heat for too long. 5 miles at the most.

So here's the fun part. A friend of mine is helping me as building engines for him is like me building/doing car audio installs... It's in our blood.










All lined up so I can still get my truck in the garage.










It's a 99 Grand AM GT, 3.4L w/113K miles on it. Even w/the problems it still ran smooth. no signs of wear except the norm for that many miles. The heads were warped 8 thousands of an inch, so that was the worst of it. It goes back together this weekend. I'll give an update when it's done.

Phew. Do not envy you! Head gaskets are a bitch!

Especially in a FWD V6...............

Luckily for me that's where my friend excels. He's got his tricks and tips and the like.

I'm glad the head gasket got replaced on my truck about 35,000Km before I bought it.

I like working on stuff like this but you just can't do it living in an apartment.

I just did a head gasket replacement on my older civic as well, always fun stuff. Always a good time to do other preventative stuff we all neglect as well. (timing belt, water pump, etc..)

Since you have to take off most of that stuff on the civic anyhow........

rlockwood wrote:I just did a head gasket replacement on my older civic as well, always fun stuff. Always a good time to do other preventative stuff we all neglect as well. (timing belt, water pump, etc..)

That's exactly what we did. The belt was put on last year so it's good. And now so is everything else.


After a few hours spent this morning we managed to get most of it back together. Tomorrow after work, the rest we will finish. then flush the radiator system again and run some old crappy oil through it and a new cheap filter to get out the debris that was in the engine followed by a clean oil change w/my favorite stuff, Castrol Full Syntec and a Fram 7000 mile filter.

Here's a few updated shots.

I use Mobile 1 Synthetic and Canadian Tire filters.

Dunno why I use the Mobile 1, probably because that's what Tom uses and recommends.

You got lucky if the head gasket didn't cause any additional problems. How long has it taken you? When mine went it ended up being a full rebuild. It took me forever but she's better than new now. Plus I learned a lot about my truck.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Green93Toy/MyToy

Jason

BigDaddy wrote:You got lucky if the head gasket didn't cause any additional problems. How long has it taken you? When mine went it ended up being a full rebuild. It took me forever but she's better than new now. Plus I learned a lot about my truck.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Green93Toy/MyToy

Jason

My friend has been doing this for years, 14+, like I have been for car audio. He's not ASE certified, but he's taken the online test and passed it just doesn't count cause it was a freebie that was given to him.

He feels very strongly that the rest of the engine is perfectly fine. So I trust his judgment.

It's only taken us 12 hrs of work of our own time so far w/about another 3 to go. Due to when he works and when I work (me-6a to 2p, he-3p-11p) we only get to work on it on the weekends. He's taking vacation this week so today after work we'll finish it up. All in all it's been 2 weeks, 5 days since we parked it.

It looks as if you did a good job on yours. Very shinny. Any noticable difference in the power dept?

It's in and done. Runs great, but still has the issue of spitting out the coolant. Right now there's only water and a Prestone cleaning solution in the coolant system now. Supposedx to drive around like that for a few days.

On Thursday I'll flush that out and put in the 60% coolant/40% water mix and hope that it'll stop overflowing the coolant out.

Our thought process is that there's 90% water and 10% Prestone cleaner in there and that the water is boiling causing air pockets that need to get out.

15 hours sounds great. I wish I could have been that fast. The worst thing about getting into a job like that is starting to trust it afterwards. Every little noise I turn off the radio and listen for the worst. Looks like you guys did a good job.

I did notice quite an improvement in power. A lot of it being that I'm running on all 6 cylinders now. Still a few other improvements to do engine wise. Then a lift and bigger tires ect...ect....

Jason

Well, we're screwed!

It's either the block or the radiator. We just don't have the extra $$ to even chance one more thing. The coolant has oil or even tranny fluid in it after the rebuild from the heads up. We noticed something amiss in the tranny and found out that the coolnt line and tranny radiator share a "2-way" line in the radiator that might be cracked letting tranny fluid in the coolant system instead of it being oil.

So the wife and I have decided to sell the car. It's got some frontal issues after my wife put it in the ditch last fall. The engine still runs great, like a raped ape. Any suggestions?

smgreen20 wrote:The engine still runs great, like a raped ape. Any suggestions?

Did somebody say go kart?

stipud wrote:

smgreen20 wrote:The engine still runs great, like a raped ape. Any suggestions?

Did somebody say go kart?

Hold on for dear life

strip the car down and make it a demolition derby car!

I have to replace the gasket in mine as well. Cant wait for that bill to come in. Then again, its really no surprise. Check out what i saw in a magazine 2 days ago:

http://www.dexcoolsettlement.com/

Thanks for that claim form on that site. I filled it out.