Confirm Blown Head Gasket
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Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2014
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From: Florida
Confirm Blown Head Gasket Hi fellas just need a little help confirming if I have a blown head gasket or not. I have a 1996 firebird ws6 with just a little over 91k on the motor and tranny. Yes it is the original motor and tranny that the car rolled off the line with. Just did a fuel pump swap with a trap door mod, also want to mention that the car had been sitting for about 4-5 months under a cover before it was started back up with a new battery. Car has a year old, steel water pump in it and a brand new oem radiator, thermostat. All parts were bought from ws6store.com or a local auto parts store. Reason i suspect a head gasket is because the radiator was just about dry when I opened it up and the car was in the red temp wise then the fans kicked on which helped some but not much. Oil was semi milky until I changed it and put seafoam inside the engine to get rid of the moisture. How hard would it be to replace all of the head gaskets and is it too difficult of a job for me to do in my driveway, yes I have a **** ton of tools and beer. Any help is appreciated thank you.
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Joined: Dec 2010
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From: Maricopa, AZ
You can do the head gaskets in the driveway (you'll need a torque wrench though). I'd replace the head bolts while you're at it (I don't remember if they are torque to yield or not). Soak the exhaust bolts in PB blaster or similar a few time a day for a few days before you try to remove them, I'd also recommend some new header bolts (not needed if the old ones come out fine though).
Did you pull the spark plugs and spin the engine over? If you have a blown head gasket that is getting coolant into the oil, it would have to do it through the piston rings. So, that would show on the spark plugs and may have coolant in the piston chamber. Removing the spark plugs and spinning the engine would force that water out through the spark plug hole. You can also confirm a head gasket leak through a compression check.
Did you pull the spark plugs and spin the engine over? If you have a blown head gasket that is getting coolant into the oil, it would have to do it through the piston rings. So, that would show on the spark plugs and may have coolant in the piston chamber. Removing the spark plugs and spinning the engine would force that water out through the spark plug hole. You can also confirm a head gasket leak through a compression check.
The hard part is just getting to it and then all the cleaning involved. The job isn't too bad but plan for at least a long weekend if everything goes as planned and if you have everything.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2014
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From: Florida
The rad wasn't even half full whenever I checked it. I did not pull any plugs out to confirm. I'm fairly sure it is a head gasket. The engine was overheated about 2 years back when my clutch, flywheel, and water pump all decided to give out within a couple days of each other. Pretty sure that is what did the gasket in. All other cooling hardware is less than 2 years old and should not have failed considering that all the parts I get are made by reputable names ( ac delco, edelbrock, holly, etc). I had considered a cracked block but I had no trouble accelerating from 40-120 in 4th gear at 6500 rpms. I am considering just scrapping this engine and throwing a completely new one in and rebuilding the tranny. I've had to put well over 2k into this current LT1, although the car would be sitting for quite a while before I have the extra cash and time to do this. Thoughts, questions, comments?
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 87
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From: Florida
One last thing before I changed the oil about 2 weeks ago the old oil was very milky and rad fluid was coming out of the exhaust before then. The new oil isn't milky and there isn't any rad fluid coming out of the exhaust, probably cause it's empty haha. Just trying to put as much info out there as possible. Is there a tek or write up I could follow for a head gasket by chance?
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Thank you very detailed info on this guide. Thanks everyone else for the help. I did confirm that it is a bad head gasket by doing a compression test, found out which cylinder it is. I am going to pull the piston and rods out, have a shop check the piston for any warping, damage, etc and redo the gasket. I will be throwing on some brand new trick flow heads and an edelbrock intake manifold hopefully by the end of the year. Might as well just rebuild the entire engine while I'm at it, I just hope I'm done sometime in the next 3 years
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Joined: Dec 2010
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From: Maricopa, AZ
Thank you very detailed info on this guide. Thanks everyone else for the help. I did confirm that it is a bad head gasket by doing a compression test, found out which cylinder it is. I am going to pull the piston and rods out, have a shop check the piston for any warping, damage, etc and redo the gasket. I will be throwing on some brand new trick flow heads and an edelbrock intake manifold hopefully by the end of the year. Might as well just rebuild the entire engine while I'm at it, I just hope I'm done sometime in the next 3 years
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Feb 2014
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From: Florida
I would like to stay with the stock manifold but on one side of the manifold, when it was taken off for the first time to replace gaskets, I ended up loosening a bolt a little too much and ended up having a piece of metal that holds in one of the bolts get chipped off. If I took my stock manifold in to be ported out do you think that they could repair my stock manifold as well? As far as porting the heads, what exactly does that do, would it make the heads like new?
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2016
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From: Michigan
Stock ported can easily outdo those trick flows. But you can also port those trick flows. Which is about the best us lt1 guys can do.
Porting the heads is a good 'power gain' mod.....but you'll see about zero power gains if you still run a stock cam shaft. Reason? Because the heads are NOT the weak (power) link in the engine.
KW
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SeBe..
Can't comment on your "chipped" intake regarding if it can be fixed. If you posted a pic people could comment.
anyway you can just get a stock replacement likely through this forum classified or a junkyard.
Doing a standard 3-5 angle valve job any qualified machine shop should be able to do and even replace any valve guides if that is needed along with "cleaning" them up.
What most do is send their stock heads to Lloyd Elliott or Advanced Induction and have them "port/polish" them along with valve size increase and all new guides/seats, springs and either can spec a custom grind cam as a package for either a DD motor with more power than stock or an all out race set up and anything in-between. Either shop can also port match the intake and I would assume be able to provide on as well if you needed it.
I have dealt with Lloyd and he is, IMHO, quite good and great customer service.
Can't comment on your "chipped" intake regarding if it can be fixed. If you posted a pic people could comment.
anyway you can just get a stock replacement likely through this forum classified or a junkyard.
Doing a standard 3-5 angle valve job any qualified machine shop should be able to do and even replace any valve guides if that is needed along with "cleaning" them up.
What most do is send their stock heads to Lloyd Elliott or Advanced Induction and have them "port/polish" them along with valve size increase and all new guides/seats, springs and either can spec a custom grind cam as a package for either a DD motor with more power than stock or an all out race set up and anything in-between. Either shop can also port match the intake and I would assume be able to provide on as well if you needed it.
I have dealt with Lloyd and he is, IMHO, quite good and great customer service.