head gasket

Folks, I`m a new user and here`s my story. It could also answer a few questions posted here. Ok, last Monday, my heater stop working, cold air coming out, then the overtemp needle goes to max..so I stopped the car, lift the hood, check oil and coolant. Coolant looks low in reservoir so I decided to continue home as I had about 10 minutes left. I decided to stop 2 times to cool down motor. Finally got home. The wierd thing is seeing on my dash the fuel light go on ?? and the tracking light go on ?? so I thought maybe the ECM was bad. Ok, next morning, I towed the car to dealer, final result.. head gasket, thermostat, plugs, flushed radiator/coolant, bla bla bla....$1000 bill. I was pissed, no excuse for this, only 110,000 km and 3.5 years old. They tell me.."you know, engine heat up, cools down, in winter season, it hard for the motor... " I think this is unacceptable, what do you think ? Does this answer your questions ? What can I do to get GM to refund ?

2.2L (2200), at about 100,000 without proper warmup time and preventative maint. the head gasket can go. remember, Aluminum Head, Iron Block. they heat up and expand at different rates and stock gaskets are not able to keep up with all the different things during warm up. It was a big problem for the older motors (2200 is an older design).

Now, if you happen to have an ecotec, then gasket might have been at fault due to the all aluminum setup.

I replaced the head gasket on my old 2.2L (cavalier) in about a day working slow, get the Haynes and you can do the job with minor hand tools and a torque wrench. oh, and get the bolt kit as well as the gasket kit to make sure you aren't doing it again in a few months.

Thanks hotbug1776.

But the fix is already done and I`m not a machanic. I understands
the reasons of this head gasket change but still, I drive this car is
a decent way, plug the bloc heater when cold in winter, let the car warm up properly, etc... and I still get punished !!! Is this common
business with GM cars, if so, why not proactively warn customers
about this. The result would probably not have been different but at least, I would have plan for this expense. Also, this happened to me back in 1991 on my 1988 cavalier, the same dam thing, haven`t they
come up with a resolution ? I live in Canada, where it can be dam cold in the winter and GM has been building cars for 80 + years for us. What do you think ? Any claim possible ?

Cheers

resolution=Ecotec
Ecotec=All Aluminum motor
All Aluminum Motor=good for head gaskets since it all moves the same way at the same time.

and GM wouldn't tell anyone about the problem, due to it would hurt car sales if people knew they would have to have major service work done on a car in the future. most of the gasket went out around 100K miles. the one on my cav went out at 183k miles and the balance shafts went out on my Quad4, but never the head gasket, but then again, that car is a freeway car and see's litle to no city driving.

Thanks hotbug1776,

My car is also a freeway car and see's little to no city driving. I drive
this car carefully, I don`t deserve this....

I`m just upset as I don`t have any options here. As I said, it also
happend to me in 1991 on my 1988 cavalier.

Question: to your knowledge, besides this car, does this happen to other cars ?

Thx

depends on the material the headgasket is made of and the cooling sysyem performance of that motor. GM has made some improvements to their systems to help fight the dreaded head gasket, but, the single greatest improvement is the all aluminum motor.

Thanks hotbug1776.

You think GM can compensate some $$$ for my head gasket fix and gaz pump fix. Both add up to $1900 ? and I`m pissed.

highly doubt GM will give up any $$$, car companies are like pimps and drug dealers. if you push it they'll find some way to say it's your fault. If you do, go directly to GM, don't go through the dealer, they're worse than the car companies (LOL)

highly doubt GM will give up any $$$, car companies are like pimps and drug dealers. if you push it they'll find some way to say it's your fault. If you do, go directly to GM, don't go through the dealer, they're worse than the car companies (LOL)


Thanks hotbug1776 ,

I will look into going to GM direct. I find it unacceptable to have my car towed 2 times now, being out of by new car for 4 days...on 2 major fixes.

Cheers. I feels good to have someone that understands....:)

I just did a headgasket on my cousin's '95 Sunfire, and now I cant get the thing to start. It'll crank, but it chugs a few times then quits. There was one vacuum line that I can not for the life of me figure out where it went, but other than that I believe everything is hooked up. What should I check out first? I've been told I should check valve lash because the head was resurfaced. Is that probable, and is there a certain procedure I should go through to check this?

Thanks a lot!