I have a 1996 camaro ss that has overheating problems. I have confirmed that it is the head gaskets. I have been thinking that if I'm going to have to strip the engine to change the gaskets I might as well rebuild the engine while I'm at it. The engine has 140,000 miles on it.

I was wondering what everyone else thought. Should I go ahead and buy a rebuild kit and rebuild the engine?

 

big difference between taking the heads off and trying to rebuild the motor. especially if you dont take the motor out. if your planning on taking the motor out then by all means rebuild the block. have the block and crank gone through at a good machine shop and dont forget to have the soft/freeze plugs replaced.

 

Yea I planned on dropping the engine from the bottom and I was thinking I might as well do the rebuild cause it would be worth the time to do it now instead of putting it back together then having to do a rebuild later down the road.

 

Do you intend to keep your 96 for a long, long time? You're gearing up for an expensive project and the only way you'll get your money out of the rebuild is by driving the car.
I did what you're contemplating to my 94 V6 last year. I pulled the engine (out the bottom) and stripped it down to a short block. I took the heads and short block to my trusted machine shop and learned that the 130k mile motor needed to be bored and decked slightly.
The shop did all the machining work and assembled the short block and heads. I got new pistons, rings, bearings, cam, lifters, oil pump, timing chain/sprockets, etc. Just normal stock stuff. One of my heads was cracked so I had to provide a junkyard replacement. Valve job and seals did the job; thankfully no guide work was necessary.
The shop bill was $2700.
I took the short block and heads home and bolted the rest back together. I spent some more money having the crossmember and LCAs sandblasted. I had a local body shop spray the oil pan and rocker covers. I brush painted the rest of the motor myself.
SBC components may be cheaper than 3.4 parts but you have two extra holes to deal with so the cost could balance out.
I just want to let you know what you're in for. I don't think I'd so it again. I'd look for a newer car with a lot fewer miles and make the monthly payments to finance it.

 

yea I understand what your saying. I do plan on having the car a long time. plus I plan on doing all the work myself cause I work at a race car shop and
I have all the tools to do it and I dont have to send anything off and have to pay anyone labor so that is why I was wanting to go ahead and do it cause I can take advantage of those things.

 

In answer to you original Question Josh. I would rebuild the entire thing. I just would never trust one once it has been overheated. I find myself in a similar situation. I bought a 99 knowing it had rod knock and had been overheated. I am afraid to use anything off the current long block because of this.

 

Also there is a lot of merit to what 1augapfel says. I am not sure I would have bought this car if I had better done my homework on the cost of a rebuild.

 

1augapfel

I have to ask a question. You spent $2700 just to get a long block basically. Was there something specific you were wanting done? I ask because I considered going the long block route and checked with Advance, Autozone, and O'reilys and long blocks were $1700-$2000.

 

@ AlaJoe,

I've installed more than a few rebuild factory rebuilts and I haven't been impressed. A lot of them have problems in my experience. The shop I worked at always told customers that *they* were responsible for locating the engine that they wanted installed. They had to find it, buy it, and have the supplier ship it to the shop. Then we would install it for a flat fee and, if there were problems, it was up to the customer to deal with the engine supplier. There's a reason we did it this way. We had rebuilt engines show up with loose head bolts and, in one case, a 2.8 V6 that was so tight you could barely turn the crank. When a rebuilt engine had problems and got a warranty replacement the customer paid again to have it installed by us. We didn;t work for free on omebody elses screwup.
With the hideous amount of labor involved in swapping a 4th Generation engine I did NOT want to do the remove/install twice whether I got a problem engine warranteed or not.
I decided to have a local shop that I've dealt with for 20 years do a so-called custom rebuild. That's the term I hear used when a shop rebuilds the exact engine that you bring them and not some core they have.
I knew that this shop would give me the straight scoop and tell me where I could cut corners and where I could not. It turned out that my engine was in worse shape than I hoped and needed to be decked as well as bored.
The final price was tough to swallow but I knew that the bores were round, the rings were fitted right, the bearing clearances were right, etc. If I did the final assembly correctly the engine would be virtually as good as new. While I have complete faith in the engine I'm not sure I would do it again.

 

it's a tough choice nowaday

machine shop rates have gone through the roof and it's tough to find a reputable vendor of reman'd long blocks.