A
Anonymous
Guest
so guess what I blew this weekend?
wait...no rude responses, OK?
wait...no rude responses, OK?
A
Anonymous
Guest
well, whatever the price of the head gasket is and what you pay yourself per hour for car work, lol
....not a clue, gotta work on gettin the post count back up
....not a clue, gotta work on gettin the post count back up
barishiman
Well-known member
You can do it yourself. I think it's around $10-15. You'll have to remove the carb so you'll need a gasket for that too. Remove the 14 head bolts, preferly in order. Also have two studs around, it'll help out a lot. Put a stud at each end of the head and left up on the head. Take the gasket off and do some cleaning if you like. Replace the gaskets and use the studs to guide down the head. Torque the head down, install carb and your ready to go. It's really not that hard of a replacement.
Andrew
Andrew
The gasket itself is a simple job which you can and should do yourself. The real questions are: WHY did it blow? and WHAT else was damaged as a result?
If you didn't over heat the engine as a result, there may not be too much collateral damage, unless you use anti-freeze. Anti-freeze is hell on bearings. Drain your oil immediately and leave the drain plug out so everything drains. Once you get the head off use lots of WD-40 on the bores and turn the engine over by hand to get the WD down into the rings and flush any anti-freeze out of there. Buy 2 oil filters and 5 extra quarts of oil cause you're going to do an oil filter change as soon as you get it all back together and another one about 100 miles later. It sucks to throw away fresh oil, but the you need to flush all of the antifreeze out of your sump.
If you didn't over heat the engine as a result, there may not be too much collateral damage, unless you use anti-freeze. Anti-freeze is hell on bearings. Drain your oil immediately and leave the drain plug out so everything drains. Once you get the head off use lots of WD-40 on the bores and turn the engine over by hand to get the WD down into the rings and flush any anti-freeze out of there. Buy 2 oil filters and 5 extra quarts of oil cause you're going to do an oil filter change as soon as you get it all back together and another one about 100 miles later. It sucks to throw away fresh oil, but the you need to flush all of the antifreeze out of your sump.
A
Anonymous
Guest
yeah, that is why I am thinking of having the mechanic open her up. He might let me come to the shop and do the tear down myself...to save labor. WHile it is open, I am going to have the head leveled off and painted...maybe a valve job...
I dont have the time/resources right now to do it myself. I am a condo mechanic....
sadly, I might have to sell her soon. Big finicial downfalls....
:arg:
I dont have the time/resources right now to do it myself. I am a condo mechanic....
sadly, I might have to sell her soon. Big finicial downfalls....
:arg:
x21
Well-known member
Yeah, that's what I wanted to do- save time, but it would have cost me about $700 here (mechanics in a college town are horrible). Anyway, having done it before with my dad, I decided to tackle it by myself, in the dorm parking lot. I also redid it 1 year or so later. I got decent to the point of - 1hr removing, 2 hrs reassembly. SO 3 hrs of my time and about $70 spent for a torque wrench I got to keep, new antifreeze, and the gasket set. I saved 90% and only used up about 3 hrs of my time.
A
Anonymous
Guest
A reasonable mechanic should be able to do the job for $350, which is really highway robbery as it's a pretty damn simple task in comparison to one of the later model cars with aluminum heads.
Still, it's four to six hours of labor (shop rates are usually $50-65/hr), plus parts ($100-150 full retail). Add a full valve job ($250-350) and it's easy to see how a simple job like this can become $600-700 if you pay to have it done.
x21
Well-known member
chaz, I do know of at least one nice engine shop in S FL. They were the guys that sold me the 200 from Recon and seem to be reliable. Thats in case you would rather do some of the work yourself, of course.
Thats a shame to hear about your woes though... It does look like a beautiful 68. And I know how hard it can be to work on cars in S FL... All of Broward county seems hell-bent on not allowing anyone to work on their cars anymore- even if its on your own property! Unless you can hide it in your garage or something. Apparently people down there are more worried about "junkers" sitting in yards than bullets flying overhead or teaching morons how to vote :x
Not everyone lives there to retire and can buy big new Cadillacs and can pay $100 to have their spark plugs changed! (/end rant , for now)
If I wasn't so attached to my own 68 and didnt have the rest of the fleet to worry about, I'd make you an offer if you did have to sell the car
Thats a shame to hear about your woes though... It does look like a beautiful 68. And I know how hard it can be to work on cars in S FL... All of Broward county seems hell-bent on not allowing anyone to work on their cars anymore- even if its on your own property! Unless you can hide it in your garage or something. Apparently people down there are more worried about "junkers" sitting in yards than bullets flying overhead or teaching morons how to vote :x
Not everyone lives there to retire and can buy big new Cadillacs and can pay $100 to have their spark plugs changed! (/end rant , for now)
If I wasn't so attached to my own 68 and didnt have the rest of the fleet to worry about, I'd make you an offer if you did have to sell the car
A
Anonymous
Guest
yeah, and I am living in Cpral gables...where you cant even have a work van parked in your driveway overnight. They do NOT allow trucks with advertising on the sides to be seen from the road at night.
ah....Amerika
This mechanic is charging about $450 for gasket rep-lacement and some head work and cleaning up the whole engine. Since I dont know if there was damage...I think this is a good price. I ONLY drove it 17 miles ater the blow....and SLOW too.
ah....Amerika
This mechanic is charging about $450 for gasket rep-lacement and some head work and cleaning up the whole engine. Since I dont know if there was damage...I think this is a good price. I ONLY drove it 17 miles ater the blow....and SLOW too.
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