Blown head gasket - going to try fixing it myself

[dojobi]

Hi all,

I think I've just blown a headgasket in my car as my coolant is boiling and overflowing out of the overflow tank. I've been quoted up to $2000 to get it fixed, and apparently 90% of that price is in labour. I've also been told that it is not a particularly hard process, just time consuming. After hearing this, I was thinking I'd have a go at fixing it myself. Could someone give me some detailed directions and a list of parts/tools that I'll need to do replace it? Even a generic howto on replacing head gaskets would be great.

Also, can I just order a VL RB30 headgasket, or are they slightly different?

Thanks,

Michael

EDIT: Actually, one last thing - was my $2000 quote high or low? If I can get it for a hell of a lot less, I might just get someone else to do it.

[KamikazeR33]

become good friends with a turbo mechanic labour at a cost of a slab

while ur doing it go and buy a o ring'd head gasket or something that wont blow again

do rb25's have torque settings? anyone?

[dojobi]

Any mechanics want to be my friend?

I'll be selling the car soon, so I just want to replace it with another stock one.

[jomsy]

quick rundown on how to do it, remove the following parts

1- fan shroud and engine fan,

2- intake cross over pipe,

3-leave intake manifold on head, just remove fuel hoses, and wiring, and some other hoses you will see then if you forget them when you lift of the head

4- crank angle sensor and covers

5 all the belts, a/c , steer, alt

6- put motor on top dead center

7- remove balancer and lower cover

8- mark camgears and crank gear with liqud paper in (ie put a dot on the gear and on the belt)

9- loosen tensioner and remove belt

10- take of plug cover and rocker covers

11- drop the exhaust at the dump pipe

12- remove turbo feed hoses (the hardest bit of the whole job)

13- you may have to remove the cams to get to the head bolts just check i can remember its not hard

14- remove head bolts

15- get someone to help you lift the head off, check nothing is still attached, ie hoses wiring small bolts

16- idealy get the head checked, get a razor blade and scrap away the old head gasket

of head and block then sand it with some wet n dry cleanlyness is the key hear

17- wipe down with a clean rag and re assemble in the reverese order, just torque up the head bolts to correct tension

piece of cake really, it honestly isnt that hard to do, so long as your not a complete tool

[SATO GTS]

mic33r call me i am interested..

0417224107

[Bleach1]

I have done many heads in my time and i would recommend getting the head tested and an engine shop. I have had it happend twice with a head gasket job when the customer didnt want to get the head tested and the heads had warped due to overheating. Both times it was repairable but ended up costing them twice the labour.

[DLuded]

i was thinking about doing my head gasket in my ma70 myself cause of labour cost and spent countless hours looking up info. some of the best advice i got was to video camera the whole thing. taken parts off isnt that hard but putting them back togother can turn out very difficult. make sure you label everything. also like Bleach1 said get the head checked and make sure its not warped. if you change the head gasket and its warped you'll have to do it again

and for $2000 they will probbaly replace the head gasket, check the head etc...do everything needed

[Craved]

i had a similar theory about my car - doing the same kind of things with boiling and slight over heating -- turns out it's just a bust thermostat thats sticking, will work out cheaper if it is the same for you guys!

still to find a new thermostat for my car though

[666DAN]

Yeah head-gaskets aren't too bad to replace...just give yourself a weekend and you'll get it done no problem, with time to spare. It's just time consuming...that's why it's so costly.

The head gasket on my corolla went...$50 for the gasket...yet quoted $1000 to put it in, why wouldn't you do it yourself if you have the tools?

Dan

[GTRgeoff]

quick rundown on how to do it, remove the following parts

1- fan shroud and engine fan,

2- intake cross over pipe,

3-leave intake manifold on head, just remove fuel hoses, and wiring, and some other hoses you will see then if you forget them when you lift of the head

4- crank angle sensor and covers and make index marks to put them back in the same place

5 all the belts, a/c , steer, alt

6- put motor on top dead center

7- remove balancer and lower cover breaker bar against the chassis and use the starter motor to crack the bolt which is 1-1/16 or 27mm, maKW SURE YOUR IGNITION PACK IS DISCONNECTED.

8- mark camgears and crank gear with liqud paper in (ie put a dot on the gear and on the belt)

9- loosen tensioner and remove belt the tensioner is a 14mm nut and needs an allen key to turn away far enough to remove tension and make it easy to reassemble

10- take of plug cover and rocker covers

11- drop the exhaust at the dump pipe or just use a 17mm open end spanner and remove the turbo from the manifold (4 nuts) and leave the manifold attached to the head

12- remove turbo feed hoses (the hardest bit of the whole job) then you can leave these on and the turbo will hang on the exhaust dump

13- you may have to remove the cams to get to the head bolts just check i can remember its not hard at top dead centre there are indents cast intop the cams  to allow you to access the studs with a 10mm hex drive. Buy a good quality one.

14- remove head bolts

15- get someone to help you lift the head off, check nothing is still attached, ie hoses wiring small bolts

16- idealy get the head checked, get a razor blade and scrap away the old head gasket

of head and block then sand it with some wet n dry cleanlyness is the key hear

17- wipe down with a clean rag and re assemble in the reverese order, just torque up the head bolts to correct tensionHead torque settings

These are the specs I used on my last rebuild engines

Head is torqued down in 5 stages.

1. 22ftlbs

2. 72ftlbs

3. slacken off

4. 22ftlbs

5. 75ftlbs

piece of cake really, it honestly isnt that hard to do, so long as your not a complete tool

Hope that helps

[dojobi]

Sorry for the late reply everyone. I probably should have posted my original post now as I just went to Tasmania for a week and only just got back (so couldn't look at replies).

Anyway, the info you've given me is perfect everyone, especially skylinegeoff and jomsy. I'm going to get SATO to do it for me, and I'll watch and learn

[dojobi]

Kyle, I'll give you a call tomorrow. I'm a little busy atm as I only just got back and have a huge amount of stuff to do.