I was having excessive steam out the exhaust and pressure in my radiator a few months ago in my 95 Z28's LT-1 motor....
I pulled it apart and found the number 7 cylinder head gasket fire ring eroded away and then the gasket had cracked over to a water jacket....Crap what a pain this car was to tear down...

I sent my heads off to CRC racing engines who cleaned and pressure tested them...They passed & looked good...Dave checked the valves and found many intakes not sealing up on the seats. Also it took .007" removed from the deck surface to fix the divot left from the blown head gasket.
I ended up with a perfect almost new looking set of heads with the full treatment and valve job they even shimmed the springs for $250 (I'm friends with the owner)
I just spent $302.65 at O'reillys on the following
-4 radiator hoses
-8 AC delco platinum plugs
-set spark plug wires
-new serpentine belt
-ARP head bolts
-oil & Filter
-Anti-freeze

A few weeks ago I got a screaming deal ona Fel-Pro head set gasket set for $170? I think it was....I know even with a deep discount the set was still rediculous expensive...
I then spent $11.00 for the special rubber washers from the dealer for the "steam lines" on the back of the heads that was not included in the fel-pro kit.
I still yet have to buy the headers....Pacesetter black, longtubes. Which is gonna be about $400



All in all this job has sucked bad....The setback motor has put a hurtin on my back and has costed me a pretty penny. I wanted to have the injectors professionally checked and cleaned but I cant afford it....I also wanted to put in a new distributor cap etc....But cant afford that either...

I did remove the air pump and EGR and all related tubing. The convertor has been gone for years so it dont need the rest of the junk.

The car has 132,000 miles on it...I was told by a reputable shop that its lucky not to be on its second set of head gaskets...But they were the originals.

This has got to be the most expensive and most broke down car I have ever owned....It has spent as much time sitting broke as it has been running. Its only the second car I have ever owned that has left me on the side of the road...Hope I start having some better luck.

My only question is on putting the headers on.....Can I just drop them in? or is it a major trick to fit them into the body? Do they need to go in from the top or bottom? Do I need to loosen the motor mounts and jack the motor up to fit them?....That is all.

 

Also the fel-Pro kit came with MLS gaskets....I know your supposed to put them on dry but I keep hearing of turbo cars leaking...Should I use spray Hylomar? From www.valco-cp.com Or should I put them on dry.
I sure as heck dont want to take this motor apart yet again.

I am using Valco silicone to seal the ends of the intake and other various places.

 

I just went through all of this almost word for word with my 95 z28. the head gasket rotted out in the back corner. I reworked the heads myself and did some minor porting and polishing. and since i had the whole engine apart i threw a cam in and a whole new valve train with roller rockers. It was alot of work but doing it myself saved a TON of money and it was a good experiance taking apart my own car. the headers as far as i know will have to go in from the bottom and there alot of fun too

 

oh and i cant believe you got those rubber center washers for 11 bucks!! i remember paying like over 30 for those stupid little things! lol

 

I got a friend who is a parts manager for a Pontiac dealer, Gave me employee price.

I thought about putting a cam & timing chain in it but I just cant stomach doing any more at this time.

Your description is exactly like mine, The head gasket "Rotting" out in the back corner of the drivers side head....Must be a damn factory conspiracy...Why Does it seem like 95's have more trouble than any other year????? I am selling this car as soon as its back together. Really its got for sale signs on it right now. Its just parked in my back yard next to the garage so not too many people see it.

 

Good im not the only one. I read all this stuff and think wow this was me 2 months ago. I wanted to do the cam when i was that far apart but said screw that i had enough. I did port my heads and intake while it was apart though.

 

(completely off topic)

Nice car, looks just like mine?

What's the mileage?

Mines around 32k
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I got the Z put back together Sunday...Took about 15 hours and its still not completely finished. I put the new fel-pro gaskets on after much cleaning and inspection of the deck surface.
I used brand new ARP head-bolts and torqued them to 75 ft.lbs. which is much higher than the factory torque spec that I saw around 62-65 ft lbs.

I cleaned the intake real good, the inside was carboned up pretty good from the intake valves leaking. I adjusted the valves using the technique I learned from comp cams instruction sheet. It works real well, turn the motor other until the exhaust pushrod begins to come up and adjust intake, turn the motor over after its adjusted and watch the intake go all the way up and most of the way back down and then adjust exhaust side...Repeat for each cylinder and once the zero lash was found go 1/2 turn past.
I installed a set of ceramic coated Pacesetter headers and it turned into a major cuss-fest making them fit...The drivers side hit the steering shaft hard once installed...Not to mention both headers go in from underneath the car. The passenger side being much harder to fit... I had to grind the od of the steering shaft knuckle...It isnt a safety issue since the thing is massive as far as steering knuckles go...Just sucks that it was never mentioned to me as a issue.
The passenger side fit poorly and was a royal pain to get into final postion to tighten down. The EGR tube mount on the back was angled right into the damn head...SO the tube couldnt be installed until I took a giant prybar and bent the tube rearward towards the firewall....What a bunch of BS. Had to scratch the new coating in a couple places getting them in place and bent right.
I got most of the wiring back into place. Enough to start the motor. It sounds really good with the headers on it but I have not driven it yet. I still have to install the radiator and a few items on the front of the motor.

I have two pulleys on the front of the motor....Not sure if the small aluminum one is supposed to be there? Maybe its a underdrive....That would explain the heavy steering and the fact the air-conditioning never seemed to work that great....There is a much larger pulley in front of the aluminum one that is hanging out doing nothing...Is that just there for crank balance? Oh well.

Should get it finished this week in a evening or two. The headers did make for a 10-15 minute sparkplug installation from the top side of the car...And the spark plug wires were also easy to install from up-top.

 

Same exact thing that happened to my 95 z with about 135,000 miles. back corner drivers sidehead gasket. I ended up rebuilding the whole motor and throwing a cam and lifter set in it, new plugs and wires, all new heater and radiator hoses, starter (would have gone soon),new electric wp, ported and painted intake, 58mm throttle body coming, cold air intake, 160 thermostat, spec stage 2 clutch,and headers all the way back to the catback exhaust. They dont make a 2008 camaro but I guess I do!A lot of work and money. Not complete yetbut i hope its worth it.Yeah. PS. I found that in the vapor line between the heads was pluggedgoing to the drivers side. If you can still check that Im curious to see if that happened to someone else as well. I doubt if that being plugged could cause a blown head gasket though.Maybe?