Hello. On my Mom's 98 Eclipse DOHC I noticed oil leaking all over the place. So I took it in to a shop and they determined it was the head gasket leaking oil down the back of the block. Since I'm pretty good with cars in general I want to tackle this gasket change for her because most shops want in excess of 1,000$ to do the gasket r&r.

My question is, for those who have done this, how hard was it and is there any suprises I will encounter. Also, any special tools I need before I start. I'm not expecting a write up or step by step(unless you want to post it up, that'd be cool) but any tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm a Ford man myself so this car will be a new undertaking for me.

Thanks!

 

well i have done plenty of head gasket/timing belt jobs. since your going to be doing the head gasket, are you going to do the timing belt? how many miles are on the car?

 

it has 75,000 miles and yes, I'll be replacing the water pump and timing belt. I'm gonna try to pull it out with intake and exhaust manifold if possible. I'm kinda freaked out about having to pull the cams out, is that a PITA? Any special tools I'll need? Thanks!

 

Damn those 420as always blowin the head gaskets

 

anybody else? My mom is getting impatient with me and I don't wanna go into this blind.

 

if the head bolts are similar to the head bolts on the turbo models, you need a 12point 12mm socket, not the regular 6 point

 

dude it ain't hard at allllllll i just took my 99 head off today to change the head gasket, idler bearing, water pump and timing belt. all you need is patience. honestly the hardest thing is getting the plastic cover off. and really, it's almost easier to take the engine completely out lolyou will have to remove the left side motor mount to get out a bolt but it's not hard at all, 2 friends and i removed my head in about 2 1/2 hrs. so just take ur time, do it right.

 

well, I tried it, but I couldn't get the damn balancer off. I bought a 3 jaw puller, but there's nowhere for the center bolt to push against. I tried backing the balancer bolt out a bit and using it to push off of, but it ended up bending the bolt slightly and the balancer didn't budge. After a few hours of this I just said to hell with it and put everything back together. She'll just have to live with a few spot of oil here and there to give a shop 1000.00 + to fix it. I can do 6 Ford 302 heads in the time it takes to do 1 of these..F'n Mitsubishis

 

Thus the reason I haven't bothered trying to change MY mom's head gasket on her '99 Stratus.

 

you gave up? go to advanced auto, rent their 3 claw pulley puller, it has a small rod that fits into the center of the balancer and comes right off. btw, as long as you examine your headbotls, you don't necessarily HAVE to change them out.