Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

Alright I got the car out today and either the heads or the head gaskets let go after about 5 miles or driving so the car went on the trailer and went back to the garage. I had factory Impalla gaskets in there which were suggested by a few different people but I'm thourally (SP) unimpressed. I didn't get the motor hot at all, it only got up to about 190* so I'm not worried about them being warped, but something bad happened.

Basically I'm looking for the worst case senerio I need to get new heads what are my options. Right now I have LE3s with a CC306 with plans of going with a bigger cam in the future. I know Dart just came out with the Pro 1s for the LT1, but how will these compare to the LE3s? How about AFR, Trick Flow, or something from A.I. or anyone else. I'm looking for a cheaper alternative, but I don't want to "cheap out" on my topend. I'm going to call my engine builder since he is a Dart dealer and see what he can the the bare Darts for and use all of my valves and springs for a good head at a really good price.

Sorry for the long post, but let me know your experience with some heads and what you think I should do

jasonisdn

iTrader: (1)

have what you already have checked. find out why it blew the gasket then go from there. take the heads to a local machine shop and have them check the deck on them. then check your block with a straight edge. theres no need to throw money at it, save that for future parts.

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

I hear what you are saying but these heads have been done at least 2 times and had been on 3 different motors that were blown up. I'm just preparing for the worst, I had the heads checked out 1500 miles ago and they were good but my machinist said that they were as far as they could go and if they needed to be fixed it wouldn't be possible.

I'm thinking its just the head gaskets, but I have never had a gasket let go after such a short time like this before. But I guess I'm close to 12 to 1 compression so mabye the head gaskets were defective and my higher compression ruined them for good. I have ARP head bolts so it wasn't the bolts and the torque was right and done in the right pattern.

Tomorrow if I'm up to it I may start pulling the heads and see what I come up with and get some felpro gaskets like I had before, they seemed to work well.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Find a shop that can check the hardness and get them checked. Many "reputable" shops do not have the tools to check this and if the aluminum heads get hot they can get permanently softened and not hold a gasket like you seem to be experiancing.

They can be "staight" but soft and be junk.

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

Yeah I hear what you are saying. My engine builder said that they would be fine on a N/A motor, but if I were to spray NO2 that they would more than likely "lift" I'm going to pull the topend back apart soon and like I said my motor didn't get hot, I shut it down once it started heading north of 180* because it always runs between 160 and 180*

Just sucks because I just got the M6 swap finished and fixed a few small problems and I was really hoping to get some good miles on it this year and if the heads are bad (which I'm hoping their not) it probably won't be back out until next spring because I just can't afford a head upgrade right now.

Thanks for the replies

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

I have spare iron heads I could part with cheap that would allow you to drive the car. if you want. The big chambers would lower compression but a slower drivable car is better than a dust collector in the driveway.

Pampered-Z

Are you running bolts or studs. lots of people have problems with studs sealing. I did abd went back to bolts? I never had problems with past big blocks, but for some reason the LT1 just wouldn't seal.

I also use copper coat on my Commetic gaskets to get a good seal.

I would look into these before dumping the heads.

John

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Studs weep they do not make head gaskets blow more easily. Cometics are very picky about surface finish, the average shop will not get the finish good enough for them to really work well.

BattleShip

I use studs and copper head gasket on LT1. I seal as recommended with RTV and no problem, I run boost and they seal fine.

The thinnest copper I have found is .042". So it will be the same as Fellpro crushed thickness. Studs are a pain, but with copper the head will seal, if it doesn't there is a bad problem.

Check head and deck to ensure they aren't warped

Good luck

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

Ok me and my brother were talking and we decided to order the felpro head gaskets that I had the first time around, they were the permatorque gaskets. So my total discounted price for the head gaskets, intake gaskets, and exhaust gaskets was $60. If I were to get the heads checked out I would have 2 trips of 55 miles each way (one trip to drop them off and one to go and pick them up) to my engine guy so a total of 220 miles + the $85 to tear down and inspect the heads, so I'd have well over $100 just getting the heads checked out considering my Tahoe gets 15 mpg. The motor was burning coolant so bad that if it does it again with the new gaskets I will know that its the heads without a doubt and I'll only have $60 into it and a little more work than if I were to just pull the heads off.

But I'll have some updates by saturday at the latest, all of my parts will be here wednesday, but I'm on 10 hour days right now so I'm not sure if I will make any progress during the week.

Thanks for all of the replies guys and BTW I'm using ARP bolts, no studs here

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

Head and intake gaskets showed up today. I'm going to try to get out to my parents garage tomorrow morning to start tearing down the top end and seeing what happened with the old gaskets and recleaning everything back up and reassembling. I should have everything done by saturday at the latest and I will post up the conslusion

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

I got everything back together, I didn't get the heads checked out since I figured it would be a waste of money. I installed the permatorque felpros that you can get at autozone for about $44 for the set and shes up and running, not burning antifreeze but its running really rich. Got it up to normal running temp (~165-175*) blowing some nice heat through the heater and I think its ready to go now.

I have a few small things to finish up such as.....bleed my front breaks again, adjust my torque arm, adjust my shift stop so I can use my even gears, change my oil again, and clean the dirty bish up. then when its driving I need to do some small things like fix my windshield wipers, get the windows tinted, swap to some LS1 brakes, and the list could go on for days LOL.

But I just wanted to post up that the headgaskets fixed the major leak. And an FYI DO NOT GET IMPALLA SS HEAD GASKETS FROM GM, they are compleate garbage IMHO and caused me about 15 hours of extra work

Z-RATED94

iTrader: (6)

I'm glad your problem seems to be fixed, but there are many motors running around with the Impy gaskets. Mine is one of them.

fergymoto

iTrader: (129)

I am running the Impala gaskets on several LT1s myself.

Turnin20s

iTrader: (12)

Yeah, well thats the only thing that was changed and no more problems. The impalla gaskets didn't last more than 5 minutes after the first start up. You guys can keep running them, but they were my first and last set that I will own.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Maybe there was an installation error the first time around, missed torque on a bolt or the like.

As said way too many cars running those gaskets without issue for you to be right in blaming them.

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

Caprice is right, too many people here run the Impala gaskets for them to be garbage.

BattleShip

Be thankful it is ok now. I hope it holds up, those gaskets are fine on a flat set of heads yours are suspected to not be flat so....