HOw hard to replace head gasket?

ya while your at it get a water pump gasket and intake.also do both

might as well tear both heads of to replace the head gaskets.... first time i did it by myself it took a couple of days....but thats because i wasnt prepared with everything i needed...

DirtyD916 said:

Would the CHiltons manual have it in there?

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yep

You'll need head, intake, waterpump gaskets, and some gasket sealer, gasket remover speeds up cleanup a little. Wouldnt be a bad idea to pick up 4 extra intake bolts and cut the heads off, makes placing the lower intake without disturbing the gasket much easier. Other than that I think youre in business. Should be 4-6 hours depending on your speed.

Oh, and I would definitely do both sides if youve already got it apart.

You need to get new head bolts and ARP is the way to go. You will also need thread sealer and assembly lube for the bolts. You will need to chase the threads in the block so you will get accurate torque. I torque my heads to 80-85 lbs.
Yes, and replacing both now will be better.

Plan on 3 days to do the job if you haven't done it before.

Day one gets the heads off in 4-6 hours. The A/C Compressor comes off with lines still connected. Mark all the electrical, smog and vacuum lines with tags to help you remember where to re-connect them.

Day two gets all the gasket surfaces scraped off extra clean and the heads dropped off at the machine shop if you are going to have them reconditioned. Time here is another 4-6 hours. Whatever you do, don't skimp on cleaning the gasket surfaces. New gaskets need to seat against bare metal and not the residue left from the old gaskets in order to seal leak free. This is the most time consuming and tiresome part of the job. Look for little things that need to be replaced like the short hose from the thermostat hosing to the water pump, damaged vacuum lines and hose clamps that are rusted or broken.

Day three starts when you get the heads back from the machine shop. This is the time to pick up all the little odd pieces you found needing replacement on your day two inspection/cleanup. Plan on 6-8 hours to reinstall the heads and reconnect everything. Plan on an additional 2 hours to troubleshoot/adjust everything.

Now for some practical tips:

Plan on cutting the thermostat to water pump hose, or removing the thermostat housing. Also plan on removing the distributor to get clearance to remove the intake manifold. Remove #1 spark plug, stick your finger in the spark plug hole and crank. When your finger gets air moving past it, stop cranking. Turn the engine until the timing marks line up with the pointer. Now you can pull the distributor out.

You'll need new head bolts - get ARP bolts ($40) or studs ($93, maybe more). All the bolts get antiseize under the bolt heads, and everything but the short head bolts get it on the threads. You need Teflon pipe dope or ARP sealant to coat the threads of the short head bolts. The short bolts go into the water jacket and will seep coolant if you don't use the sealant.

My favorite trick that saves time and effort is the stay in place gasket. Be sure that you scrape (don't use a wire brush) all the old gasket material off, then clean all the surfaces with acetone or MEK.

When the surfaces are clean, use weather strip adhesive on the head to manifold surface, and on the side of the gasket that mates to the head. Follow the instructions on the tube or can and when it gets tacky, press the gasket down on the head.

Clean the area where the rubber rails mount to the block in front and in the rear with more acetone or MEK and do the same trick with the weather strip adhesive that you did to the heads.

Coat the rubber seals and the gasket area around the water passages with lots of Blue Silicone gasket sealer and put it together. Walla! No leaks and no gaskets that shifted out of place.

If you reuse the injectors from your old setup, a repair kit is available from most auto parts stores if needed. Coat the injector body "O" rings with oil before you use them and everything will slide back together.

For iron heads, clean the combustion chambers with a wire brush in an air or electric drill. I used a scraper for the pistons. I don't like to use the wire brush on pistons because it will remove metal very easily.

Change the oil once you get everything back together. Once the engine is up & running, run it for 1-2 hours and change the oil.

Tools: a good torque wrench is a must have item. A razor blade scraper that holds a single edge razor blade from Home Depot or Ace hardware is another handy thing. Get a Chilton or Haynes shop manual - you'll need it for the bolt torques and patterns. The intake manifold has an especially odd pattern. You'll need access to a timing light to set the timing after you re-stab the distributor.

Consumable parts:
Fuel injector seal kits with 2 O rings and a pintle cap (Borg-Warner P/N 274081) are available at Pep Boys auto parts. Cost is about $2.74 per kit. The pintle caps fit either injectors with a pin sticking out the injector end or 4 with more tiny holes in the injector end. The following are listed at the Borg-Warner site ( http://www.borg-warner.com ) as being resellers of Borg-Warner parts:

http://www.partsplus.com/ or http://www.autovalue.com/ or http://www.pepboys.com/ or http://www.federatedautoparts.com/

Most of the links above have store locators for find a store in your area.

Head gaskets
Upper manifold gasket
Lower manifold gasket set.
Exhaust manifold gasket set
Rocker cover gaskets - look for the rubber ones with the steel bushings - Summit has them
Short formed hose between thermostat hosing and intake manifold
6 ft 7/64" or 1/8" vacuum hose
2 ft 1/2" heater hose
1 1/2 ft 5/8" heater hose
Blue Silicone sealer
ARP antiseize or equal for the bolts
ARP thread sealer or Teflon pipe dope for the short bolts.
4 each 3/4" hose clamps (spare item in case the old ones are bad)
4 each 1/2" hose clamps (spare item)

Hey man I just got done with putting some new heads and intake on it took me 3 good days of work to get it all said and done. As far as the gaskets, just go to your local hi-po store and get a head gasket up set it comes with all the gaskets youll need. The heads just torque them down to 85-90 ft lbs or 100 if youre gonna run nitrous. I did all this and it was my first time doing anything this big on my car, youll do fine just be prepared for some aggravation and if you have a friend with small hands, they will come in handy to.

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Thanks for pulling this one up Rock777
And thanks for the practical tips jrichker
I think this one's a keeper

Ok this is probly a dumb question but is a head gasket and intake gasket the same thing. Or is the head gasket the gasket that goes under the headers? Im smelling coolant in my exhaust which one do i need to change?

Critter_04 said:

Ok this is probly a dumb question but is a head gasket and intake gasket the same thing. Or is the head gasket the gasket that goes under the headers? Im smelling coolant in my exhaust which one do i need to change?

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headers= header gaskets (not your problem)

Check your compression with a compression meter they sell at any car parts store. you will probably need to change your head gasket if your assumptions are correct.

Critter_04 said:

Ok this is probly a dumb question but is a head gasket and intake gasket the same thing. Or is the head gasket the gasket that goes under the headers? Im smelling coolant in my exhaust which one do i need to change?

Click to expand...

If you have white smoke exiting from your pipes all the time it's a head gasket.

The head gasket seals the heads to the block.

Intake gaskets seal the lower intake to the heads. The upper intake and lower intake called the plenum gasket can some times be confused.

Header gaskets seal the headers or manifold to the heads.

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