Very true. I didn't catch that his tune was off. Why would you even give the car 1psi of boost if the tune isn't done?
He said he tuned it... who knows I gotta give him a shout in the morning. hopefully that won't be literally.
Turbo kit finished!!! But so is the head gasket too i think
- Thread starter Tom95gt
- Start date
He said he tuned it... who knows I gotta give him a shout in the morning. hopefully that won't be literally.
Black Stampede
Founding Member
Very true. I didn't catch that his tune was off. Why would you even give the car 1psi of boost if the tune isn't done?
Hef5.0weisen
20+ Year Stangneter 
that was at about 115. (they had been subjected to a few nitrous bottles before as well) they didn't come apart between the cylinders, I think it was a steam passage. sorry not to fluent with head gasket terminolgy. But, it would pressurize the coolant and puke out the reservoir.
cheap, good luck
You new guys and your tuning. Back in the old days we had fuel pressure, and base timing, and we still did just fine. Everyone gets obsessed with tuning. Stock head gaskets blow all the time. We used to drop an HCI combo and 12 psi with a Vortech, and not change anything on the computer, and the car would run just fine. I remember back in the late 90s when Renegade class didn't allow anything but a rev extender, and people would run 9 second times on stock computers. Now everyone feels that if you don't drop $600 on a dyno tune the engine is going to self destruct as soon as you lay into the throttle.
Kurt
I remember putting a turbo on one of my many cars and the HG blew not bc of the tune but bc it already was starting to go from a previous overheat. It just made itself painfully notice when I stressed it, lol. NOT justifying no tune whether its an old days tune or "new days" tune, lol.
Black Stampede
Founding Member
That's all fine and dandy, but there are plenty of people out there that would actually come on this forum, read your post after putting together a combo and beat on their car only to blow it up because it wasn't tuned. Is that going to happen to all of them? No. But getting it tuned is the only way to know for sure that you are optimizing your combo and have it within safe margins. I don't understand why anyone would act as if a tune was not a great thing to do. Take my car for example. If you are telling me that throwing an hci, turbo, and 42s on a car and just adjusting fuel pressure and base timing is a good route to go then I am truly astounded.
Now the original poster said his car was partially tuned. If you are simply saying that his car could have been within safe margins on his partial tune and had plenty of fuel and not any crazy timing then yeah I'm sure it may not have been so tune related what happened. But at the same time how do you know his tuner isn't a glory queen for peak power numbers and didn't lean the car way out and jack timing to achieve them, which alot of tuners do. All I am saying is I don't think it is right to diminish the value of a good tune.
So should I just do the gaskets and hope that everything else on my high mileage motor holds up?
BlackVert
15 Year Member
that seems like the most logical place to start.
i don't see much point in pulling the motor and going through all that if it is just a head gasket. plus, a jy motor is probably just a likely to pop a HG as the one you have in there currently, so then you are right back to where you are now
any word from your tuner?
i don't see much point in pulling the motor and going through all that if it is just a head gasket. plus, a jy motor is probably just a likely to pop a HG as the one you have in there currently, so then you are right back to where you are now
any word from your tuner?
Yeah, change the head gaskets for now. Do a safe tune. Which for me means backing the base timing back to about 10, and jack the fuel pressure up a little.
Kurt
Don't get me wrong, a good tune is a great thing. I just irritated with the new Mustang crowd thinking the only way to make a Mustang run right is to strap it to a dyno and pay someone an ungodly amount of money to tweak the computer just right. That sounds like import mentality to me. You can make a car run nice and safe by retarding the timing a little bit, and raising the fuel pressure. Like I said, back in the day we didn't have any of this fancy computer tuning technology, and Mustangs were running fast as balls back then with nothing more than timing and fuel pressure adjustments. Now everytime someone blows a head gasket, everyone immediately blames the tune.
Kurt
Black Stampede
Founding Member
My car blew an HG on the dyno, but I know it wasn't anything to do with the tuning because I knew all the values he was using and it was nothing that would cause it to blow. On the other hand, without having any idea what the original posters' tuner was doing it's hard to make assumptions.
i just went to the shop and he said he gave me a safe tune... rich with little timing. It could be possible that after i put the msd box the car could have been leaning out a little more because he was trying to tune it with all the spark blow-out, i have no idea just a thought. He said it would be around $600 to replace the head gaskets, is that a fair price? I guess i'll leave the bottom end for now and hopefully get through the summer.
Next ride i'll get a friend with me to monitor all the gauges so i could give you guys more detail
Next ride i'll get a friend with me to monitor all the gauges so i could give you guys more detail
Hef5.0weisen
20+ Year Stangneter
Head gaskets are a lot of work, nothing cosmic. 600 is a bit much but not to far out there. Maybe some of the paid mechanics on here will chime in
Can you do it yourself??? its a simple remove and replace. Just unbolt alot of things, clean it all up, lay down new gaskets and bolt it back together. (my opinion)
If you don't have tools, 600 bucks would get you the tools to do it and then some.
South Jersey is a Mustang haven, find someone around who has done it for help.
If I still lived in South Jersey, I'd charge 200, a case of cheap beer, and parts.
And that is backyard mechainc price, no guarantee. If you were a friend it'd be for beer.
good luck
Can you do it yourself??? its a simple remove and replace. Just unbolt alot of things, clean it all up, lay down new gaskets and bolt it back together. (my opinion)
If you don't have tools, 600 bucks would get you the tools to do it and then some.
South Jersey is a Mustang haven, find someone around who has done it for help.
If I still lived in South Jersey, I'd charge 200, a case of cheap beer, and parts.
And that is backyard mechainc price, no guarantee. If you were a friend it'd be for beer.
good luck
Yea i just don't fell like bothering with it. We don't have a garage yet and it's been raining the past 2 weeks straight. Maybe I'll get ambitious enough one day and actually start tearing it down
BlackVert
15 Year Member
I hear that LS1s don't blow head gaskets, even at 100 pounds of boost. But if one wanted to change them anyway, it is a 15 minute job. And the gaskets themselves cost $5 a piece.
I guess tomorrow morning if the weather holds up i'll start tearing it down. Nobody happens to have write-up do they?
Not much you can do if it blows while you're tuning it. Just change the head gasket.
Kurt
Is that a common consensus with most people w/ these kits or just your personal thoughts on it?
