i am so pissed off right now!!! i was driving to work yesterday.... and halfway there... i smell oil burning... and looked in the rearview mirror and see smoke coming out of my car , looked at my guages and the temp guage was about 3/4 of the way up (normally right at half). and you can all guess it... i blew my headgasket.. and it was because my radiator has a leak in the bottom of it!!! yay!!! so now i have to park it and wait until i get the money for a radiator, and all the necessary gaskets and the head bolts... and then it will come down to a point where i have the time to actually fix it!!! this sucks so bad!!! i am soooo pissed! what all will i need to make sure i have to do my headgasket?? like, partswise....and should i check anything while i go thru my engine besides just the heads for warpage??and, do i have to remove my turbo and everything to get at the gasket? holy crap, i can fix it myself... i am also wondering if i should pick up a new engine or if i should fix the gasket... what would be the difference in costs? i mean, the engine has 200k on it.

 

heres what you will need.
Headgasket, timing belt, head-bolts, (this is not mandatory, however factory bolts stretch alot, so I replace them everytime I have to pull the head) thermostat, (make sure to get the gasket) Intake manifold gasket, tube of high temp RTV silicon (you never know where you are going to need this), new radiator, new upper, and lower radiator hoses, replace the heater core hoses, and any other hoses that look like they need it.
new pcv valve, oil, and oil filter, new sparkplugs, new sparkplug wires, coolant (dont forget the redline water wetter).
things you might want to do while you have it apart...
replace the waterpump, get a high performance radiator, and new SPAL fans. Replace the oil-pan gasket, drain and replace your trans fluid (get some high quality automatic transmissioni fluid if you have an auto, or get some nice 10w30 mobil1 full synthetic if you have a manual trans). drain the brake-fluid and re-fill (dont forget to bleed your brakes) with good high quality brake fluid (I reccomend Motul), drain and re-fill the cluctch lines (dont forget to bleed these either) if you have a manual trans. clean and degrease your motor, top and bottom (I like to use purple power degreaser, sprayed on a damp motor, and then allowed to set for 5-10 minutes, then removed witha heavy stream of water) you might want to replace the o2 sensors while your at it.notthat any ofthis stuff is neccessary, but it helps in the long run.

 

Just fix the headgasket. Its not gonna cost all that much as long as there was no further damage. And how bad is the leak of the radiator. If its just a small crack you can buy some radiator sealant. Go to any auto parts store and they have this stuff that looks like a cylinder of clay. It works really well.

 

One thing you may also want to do, that I feel is slightly mandatory, is have the head sent to a machine shop so they can test it and make sure its not warped or cracked.

 

If the people at the machine shop says it is cracked then i would check the engine block itself to be safe...it shouldnt be damaged it the head isnt. i just replaced a headgasket myself. You can check the head by yourself if you have a straight edge(preferably a square) and fillet gauges. check every nook and cranny of that head though..i checked mine myself and think i missed something. my oil is now getting large amounts of water. so be careful...or just be safe and take it to the machine shop

 

yeah, the amount of detail you get into is soley up to you. I have been lucky at times, and replaced head gaskets and done nothing else, then agian, I have had karma kick me square in the nuts on occasion too, and wish I would have taken the time, and spent the money to begin with, once you bolt up a head gasket, you cant go back and use it again. so... better to know before-hand, than screw yourself later

 

well, i have been really busy busting my *** at work... and i need to pay for this fix!! but i appreciate the input. i will do the necassary checks and when it really comes time to do it i will take a day or two off work along with my wednesday that i have off and make sure i tackle all the problems! i thinki will do the waterpump, radiator, gaskets, thermostat... umm... maybe some other minors... but i will update when it comes time to get it up and running...

 

is there a difference between the headgasket from a 1g to a 2g? bc i have a stock hg that you can have cheap.

 

trying to bump this thread cuz i would like to know if the head gasket on question is doable on my 1998 eclipse gst... since it may save me some money and nobody has answered the question yet...

 

i just read the problem and your bump. if your radiator has/had a leak why would you change ur head gasket? did you confirm that it was blown? if you really want to do the gasket though a good thing to do while you have the head off and puttin it back together is first check it for warping from the high heat. after that you should get a head gasket, timing belt, water pump, timing belt tensioner, tensioner pulley and idler pulley. they are not manditory but w/ that much miles on the car i'd suggest doing it. 200k is a lot of miles... if i had the money i would probably do a rebuild on the bottom end... stock pistons, rings, and rods are cheap enough and well worth it. you CAN do the head gasket, water pump, pulleys and belt (took me and 1 buddy a weekend to do it but we took our time) the bottom end rebulild you can also do yourself but i wouldn't suggest getting into internal assembly unles you know what you are doing.