My girlfriends 97 V6 Camaro overheated and she is 2 quarts low on oil and has now coolant. I know for a fact she had coolant in her car, because I just checked it a couple of days ago. Needless to say, I am pretty sure she blew her headgasket. Now the real questions come:

Should I replace the headgasket

or

Should I just drop a new engine in it

or (this is really shady)

trade the car in and get a new one



Also I have a 3.4 L and hers is a 3.8 L. Are the bolt patterns for the engine the same? Because if so I might just give her my engine and get a V8

 

You need to figure out for sure where the coolant is going.

Conversion of the older 3.4 to the new 3.8 car is a nighmare.

IMO Trading a car to a dealer is not shady. They do this for a living. Chances are they will catch a blown headgasket. Infact guys that miss headgaskets on a trades dont keep their jobs very long. Selling it to someone that does not know any better is just plain wrong.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA7KV...eature=channel

 

kragens lets you borrow compression tools so go there and pick one up, im doing a headgasket on a 96 civic and that thing is a B*TCH! Everything is so tight in there. Heads are actually not that hard to get to in 3.8s

 

Why do you think it's a head gasket? It could be leaking coolant from a lot of places. Let us know what makes you think it's a head gasket. Intake gaskets are a common problem and a lot easier to fix.


If it really is a head gasket it's pretty major work but you could do it yourself if you are a pretty good DIYer. If you don't have a lot of tools or knowledge you ought to see about trading it in or selling it outright as needing repair. Either way it isn't worth very much.

Make sure she takes better care of it.

 

yup check the elbow peice between the idler and pulley, $5 and its where my coolant leak was

 

That is one good video. I never knew that you could definitely test for a blown head gasket that way.

Thanks for the post.

 

does that thing really tell you if your head gasket is blown?

 

Sure it works 100%. You can also use an exhaust gas analyzer, known to your guys with true emission as the exhaust sniffer. Combustion of fuel creates hydrocarbons. If you have Hydrocarbons in your radiator the only way they can get is from the combustion chamber. This will detect a failing gaskets before there is any symptoms or loss of coolant.