head gasket blown

[acascianelli]

well, after putting over 62000 miles on it since i bought it at 57000 miles my head gasket blew. ( it has a little over 119000 on it ) the leak is on the back 3 cylinders on the drivers side, just above the transmission. coolant is leaking out and burning off as it hits the transmission.

anybody have any idea how much it will cost to have the head gaskets changed and have the heads reworked. on top of the head gasket my transmission has been afting weird. grinding when it goes into reverse and shifting very hard into 2nd.

im not sure what im going to do with the car yet, being that both the engine and transmission are screwed i might just cut my losses and get a new car.

[korbendallas68]

At a shop, the gasket work alone will be $500+

[acascianelli]

is it possible to change the head gaskets without pulling the motor out of the car?

[robby1870]

Yup, sure is

[korbendallas68]

Yeah, thats about the only way you should do it is with the engine in the car. IMO it's not that hard, its just the little bitch stuff that you forget to do after you get back together, and realize you didn't do it...

But you might want to make sure your transmission is ok first... before you go and throw all that work and money just find out your trans is worthless. Replacing the transmission is a lot more work.

[acascianelli]

the problem with the transmission may be just a bad vacuum modulator. ive been looking at how to remove the heads on the 3100 and one of the parts im unsure about is removing the rear exhaust manifold. it says that you have to loosen the subframe bolts and bo about doing it that way.

[korbendallas68]

I think thats so the exhaust piping can drop down a bit so you can remove the head... Not sure about that though. You are going to want to ask Brad that one.

[bszopi]

I've never seen anything about subframe bolts when it comes to head gaskets. As far as the exhaust goes, all I have ever done is just disconnect the downpipe from the exhaust manifold and pull the head with the manifold still attached. I tried once removing the exhaust manifolds from the heads so I could just pull the heads, but it was just a big waste of time.

[acascianelli]

well, since it is my only car and i needed it fixed right away i took it in to get fixed. thatll set me back 1100-1200 just in time for christmas.

[korbendallas68]

holy geez! $1200!! There's no way I'd pay that outragous price! Crazy. :wtf:

[SappySE107]

wow...thats a rape and a half on that one.

[DEI37]

Yeah, no kidding. When I had head gaskets done in my 3100 powered Cutlass Supreme, I paid $450.