So after just a week of transferring to a college university, my car decides to take a dump...at the moment it is sitting in the parking lot awaiting its fate.
So for the price of repairing a head gasket, which I've been quoted at almost 3k dollars, what would be a better decision?
Take my stock heads to get ported at a machine shop and installed?
or just suck it up and go with a le1/2 head/cam package instead?


I would like to get my car back up and running but since I am already '' in there'' maybe I should add in a cam?

 

please explain what happened and why you think its a head gasket? did you get coolant in the oil?

 

3K for a 10 hour job? what the hell is their cost per hour? 85% of the cost of a head gasket job is labor. You are still going to have the SAME labor installing new heads. So if it 3K to do head gaskets its going to be close to 5k to replace the heads? For 5k I think I would want a new stroker in there not new heads on an old motor. With out the right CAM with the heads even get you much? I was not aware that the LT1 heads where a bottle neck with a stock cam.

A reasonable price for a head gasket job is around $1250 and that is getting the heads checked for flatness , cracks and new valve seals installed at the machine shop. Anyone who quotes 3K is either trying to rip you off or they are trying to make you go away because they don't really want to do it. The last thing you want to do is over pay a shop to do a project they are scared of. Somewhere near you is a guy that can do the job blind folded and in under 8 hours. He is the one you want.

Call around, the shops that are not afraid for this job should be able to give you an accurate quote over the phone.

GL

 

Yeah I had taken my car over to Tires plus, to see what was going on. It looked like I was running on low coolant which caused my car to overheat on the highway. They managed to fix it momentarily but 2 minutes after driving it out of there, I noticed a loss of power, rise in idle and white smoke streaming up, when I looked in my rear view mirror. Ended up towing it back there, and the next day they told me it was a blown head gasket (around 2700) repair cost....they brought it down to 1800 but still, that's a hefty price just to replace a head gasket. Might as well port my heads for that price.


I'll keep in mind that 1250 avg and look around my area here in Orlando, Fl. I think I found a mechanic who can hook me up, ironically through one of the salesmen where I was trying to find something reliable to lease lol

 

You really want tire plus tearing your motor down? Find someone that rebuilds motors all day long. Not someone that does brakes, tires and exhaust all day long. When I worked at the dealership I can not even remember how many times these types of shops called us because when they where done they could not get it right. No mechanic likes to say they don't want to do a job, all of us like to think we can do anything. Anyone can make a mistake but you odds are better getting a guy who did 4 head gaskets last week then getting the guy who did 4 head gaskets last year.

When you say port and polish I would say to what end? Gasket matching is fine that is cleaning up factory defects but once you start porting you changing the design of the motor. You really need a goal in mind, what cam do you want, what headers do you have. You go crazy on the port and keep the stock cam you will loose HP.

 

No not at all. I rather go to a mechanic shop anyway, I just wanted to be sure it was a blown head gasket, so I had Tires Plus check it.


As for the head porting, I think ill just hold off on that. I guess I just started getting all these wild ideas since all of those goodies could have been installed right there with the head gaskets.


BUT mark my words, I deff will be going with LE heads and matching cam one day. haha