Headgasket replacement

[drivemusicnow]

Soo... I'm pretty sure a headgasket has blown. I'm not sure which side, and I'm not sure that I should only replace one at a time anyway. I Hate letting mechanics work on my car; however I REALLY don't have a lot of time these days, especially as I have my other project car that I'm close to buttoning up. I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to let the shop do the work or take my car back and do it myself.

I guess what it comes down to is 3 questions: Who has replaced the headgaskets by themselves? I would like to know if I need any special tools, anything out of the ordinary that your average mechanically inclined person wouldn't have. How much time did it take you, and do you have any instructions not found in your typical repair manual.

How much harder is it to lift the motor out of the car and replace them that way versus doing them with the motor in the car?

How hard/expensive would swapping in a junkyard motor (OBDII) be? I could keep the old one for parts/sensors and such, and maybe sell off the block/crank and such.

[thumper_svx]

You might want to make sure you actually DO have a blown head gasket before you decide to do it. Go to Autozone and rent a Block Tester... it's a little device that you put on the open radiator, warm the engine up and watch the color of the fluid in the device (make sure you get the fluid!!! Doh!). That'll tell you if there's exhaust fumes in the coolant which is a good sign of head gasket problems.

I worried about this after storing my car for a while so I did a lot of research. Quite simply; it's almost impossible to do head gaskets with the engine "in-situ" simply because there's very little clearance to work on each side of the block. It can be done... hell, there are pictures here on the site from someone who did it (sorry limited time or I'd do a search myself)... and I've myself pulled the heads off an engine block that's still in the car... but all of the top half accessories and stuff were also long gone so it was a little easier to find clearance. Ideally, you'd want to remove the engine from the car... especially as you stressed you don't have much time.

Getting a junk yard engine... well you won't really know if its head gaskets are any good until you get the engine in and running... then if you find it has bad head gaskets too you'll be in a lot of pain. One option I considered was buying a block and doing a complete rebuild; pistons and all (maybe custom) to have a pristine engine, then just trade out blocks between the cars and keep (or rebuild) the old one. I scrapped that idea when I realized (a) I didn't have a head gasket problem (thank you, block tester!) and (b) I just simply don't have room in my garage to store an engine while I work on it!

Just remember; anything can be done, but whether or not you personally can do it depends on how comfortable you are with mechanical stuff and how much time you can actually dedicate to it. A head gasket job is not something to be rushed.

[davew833]

That was me that posted pictures of doing the HG's in-car on my '92 pearl. I didn't have a hoist at the time and didn't want to rent one. I jacked the engine up from underneath about 6" which made it easier. It can be done, but it took a long time. Still, I was getting quotes of $2000 or more for a mechanic to do it, that is, from mechanics that would even work on it-- some wouldn't even touch it. The alternative was to spend about $300 for a Subaru full gasket set, about $100 for solvent-tanking and surfacing the head mating surfaces (NOT a full valve job), and doing the labor myself. I worked slowly in an unheated garage in the dead of winter and it took about two weeks a few hours at a time. The work's not especially difficult, there's just a LOT of it, and attention to detail is important. Apparently, I was successful-- I drove my '92 for another year without problems before selling it recently.

[TomsSVX]

Take the motor out.

Buy an engine seal kit

Send the heads out to be milled within spec

Put it all back together according to the service manuals

Tom

[Earthworm]

In my case it was a little more obvious as the radiator overflow tank started filling with black sludge. After draining the radiator I also noticed the same black sludge in the "silver silicone" rad hoses.