I think i have a cracked head....now what?
05-04-2007, 02:02 PM
#1
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I think i have a cracked head....now what? dealership diagnosed it as either a blown head gasket or a cracked head...but im thinking that it is most likely a cracked head. I am not gonna put stock heads back on her if it is a cracked head. What heads should i go w/ now???...the car is basically stock other than a cat back and a lid and a predator tune. I will be getting headers very soon anyway but i want something that will give me some more snot but wont take away from the driveablity of the car. Any suggestions???
05-04-2007, 04:16 PM
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Well either way if it is a head gasket or cracked head they will have to remove the head(s). So just go ahead and get a pair of new heads. Texas-Speed a sponsor here sells good budget heads as does Patriot Performance. Also you may want to throw a cam in there to compliment the heads, used cams can be had for around $250 in the for sale section. If your car has highmiles you should get a new ported/shimmed ls6 oil pump and a ls2 timing chain if you decide to do the cam swap. A 224 or a 228 cam will be just fine for a daily driver.
05-04-2007, 10:23 PM
#4
instead of trusting the monkeys at the dealership, which is always a bad idea, why don't you describe your issue to us and maybe we can tell you what to look for or what to do? I remember when the dealership diagnosed my low end stumble on my old LT1 as a bad optispark and wanted to charge me $1500 to replace it. I said forget it, drove it home, and found the EGR vacuum plug had come undone. Plugged it in and the stumble disappeared 
05-04-2007, 11:52 PM
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I doubt you actually cracked one of your aluminum heads fwiw. Maybe a blown gasket, but cracking an Al cylinder head is not likely. If you had some iron vortecs, that would be something different all together.
Ben T.
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05-05-2007, 04:45 AM
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pull plugs and check for antifreeze on them, check antifreeze for any oil in it (white), perform a compression check. this should tell you if it's a blown head gasket.
05-05-2007, 08:18 AM
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dont have antifreeze in the oil but shes blowin white smoke out the exhaust. i tried puttin a compression tester in the plug hole of the missing cyl.. and blew air in it and opened the radiator cap, but no bubbles or anything. the car is misfiring on cyls. 4 and 5, and the dealership told me that the miss on number 4 is caused by the miss on number 5. the only code i'm getting is a p0300 random/multiple misfire code. Any help would be great guys...please keep checking in as i want my damn car back on the road!!!
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05-05-2007, 04:29 PM
#10
Only 20K and you have major top end problems? You must be on the bottle as this is a very hearty engine. Heavy abuse is required to see this result so early on. A compression test (wet and dry) and a leak down should tell the tale. Either way it's time to pull the heads and try to find out the culprit so you don't repeat this failure. Some CNCed heads, cam and headers sound like the ticket here. Your looking at just north of $2k plus labor if you spend wisely. You'll save quite a lot if you do the labor yourself. Your probably looking at a min of $1k in labor for those three items alone. It's quite a bit of work, but you can save the labor costs if you have the tools and time to do it. If you put heads, cam and long tubes on then get it tuned you'll think you're driving a different vehicle.
05-05-2007, 05:08 PM
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yeah i cant figure out how this could have happened. I do not beat the car at all and very rarely even run it hard. if i do heads do i have to do a cam??? or cani do heads only???
05-05-2007, 06:42 PM
#12
You can do heads only, cam only or both together. It's up to you. The nice thing about the LS series is that you don't have to remove the heads or intake to swap out the cam, but if you're going to install new heads you might as well do the cam NOW if a cam change was in your plans for the future to save double labor. A lot of the items that you have to do for a cam or head swap are common to both jobs so I'd do them both at the same time if you can afford it. If you are trying to save money by buying a used cam I'd look at it VERY closely before I put my money down and Ebay is out of the the question for a bump stick. New is probably best, but if you do choose to go used examine the lobes and bearing journals for wear or pitting. I've purchased used cams in the past, but I knew the history of the cam and the mechanic that installed and removed it before I got my hands on it. Be cautious about a used cam. Thing is a cam is inexpensive compared to the cost of CNCed heads. If you can afford a set of StageII heads you can also pop for a new cam. If you do the work yourself you'll save enough money to pay for a new cam and then some. Once you do heads and cam you need to have your PCM recalibrated to take advantage of the upgrades. Throw in a set of Pacesetter LTs with OR "Y" pipe and your HP will jump big time. Just be methodical when you do the install and don't forget to spin the crank once in a while during the process as I suggested. It might save you in the long run.
05-05-2007, 06:52 PM
#13
Originally Posted by magius231
instead of trusting the monkeys at the dealership, which is always a bad idea, why don't you describe your issue to us and maybe we can tell you what to look for or what to do? I remember when the dealership diagnosed my low end stumble on my old LT1 as a bad optispark and wanted to charge me $1500 to replace it. I said forget it, drove it home, and found the EGR vacuum plug had come undone. Plugged it in and the stumble disappeared
hey, easy on the dealership techs. Im an 11year pontiac tech, and were not all monkeys. infact, most of us arent. I feel for you on your misdiagnosed problem, but its just that. a mistake. sorry. it happens to us all once in a while. you should have been settin a code for the EGR system not functioning. didnt it have a code set?
anyways, a compression test wont tell the whole story, but will help. you should see a lower # on that cyl. compared to the others. a leakdown test will do lots better in figureing out where the leak is. but ultimatly, the head will have to come off regardless of cracked head, or head gasket failure.
like other have suggested on here, if you got the cash, nows the time for all that heads/cam/headers stuff. if you dont have the money atleast upgrade to the "LS6" style heads with some good valve springs to replace the stockers. but man what a wasted opportunity to make lemonade out of a lemon.
