Helping out a friend...

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Nov 17, 2006 | 08:17 PM

AppleMac

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Helping out a friend...

Hey guys.

My friend has a 94' Camry and she took it to a shop...

They said she had a blown head gasket and a "not working" distributor....

Anyone know how hard it is to replace a head gasket on a camry?

What all will I need? Just a gasket? Can I reuse the head bolts?

Also what about the distributor? What could be wrong with that?

Thanks!

Nov 17, 2006 | 10:16 PM

bradmb

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on a scale of 1-10 of difficulty, i would rate head gaskets about a 8. and impossible if your not familiar with the car. so, let the shop fix it. it may be cheaper to buy a new motor, b/c labor costs are gonna suck.

Nov 18, 2006 | 12:05 AM

AppleMac

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did my own H/C swap on my LS2... What would you rate that?

Nov 18, 2006 | 12:26 AM

bradmb

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i dont know anyhing about your car.

i just didnt want you to think it was gonna be easy to replace a head gasket. and, im assuming it over heated, so she might want to find out what caused the head gasket to go.

Nov 18, 2006 | 09:49 AM

AppleMac

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Quote:

Originally Posted by bradmb

(bad radiator... since replaced)

I don't think it will be that bad to replace... I will just get my hands on a chiltons manual...

Nov 18, 2006 | 10:24 AM

trackbird

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From: OH

Typically the water pump is driven off of the timing belt. It's a good time to replace that and possibly the idler pulleys as well (it sucks to change the belt if one of them goes bad in 6 months, but it is just a preventative measure). I've done head gaskets on many things, several of them FWD. It's not usually impossible, it's not always fun (breaking off rusted bolts, etc), but if you've done heads and a cam on an LS motor, you should be able to tackle this one without much trouble. Get a book, get a "top end gasket kit" and typically new head bolts. Most every FWD engine I've had the heads off of used "torque to yield" head bolts and they are required to be replaced once you remove them (anything newer than the early '80's or so).

If it did overheat, I'd check the head to make sure it's flat (a machineists ruler and feeler gauges), or have a local machine shop check it and possibly just a skim cut to true it up. You don't want them to remove too much or you might need to shim the head. That's what I've done on a few of the ones I've repaired.

Good luck.