Damn this thing!

:cya:

I spend $7000 to get a rebuilt engine put in this turkey because of a blown head gasket in the old 160K miles engine, and now the rebuilt engine has done the same f@#king thing!. Not only that but the new engine's warranty won't cover it because it is probably due to a bad overheat I had a few weeks ago. So now i have to pay for a valve job on my new engine. It's a 95 formula LT1. Do they all do this, or am i just the lucky one? If I have this repair done, can they use copper head gaskets or something to make it less likely to blow out? I'd sell it, but I have too much money in it, especially since I just had the transmission rebuilt too. Someone advise me before I burn this bitch with me in it. Or make me an offer.

If you keep overheating it, check into why that keeps happening before you spend any more money on the engine. You may have fan issues or a clogged up radiator or something causing it to run hot and damage the engine.

Your right, of course. There must be a common issue that keeps affecting the engines. This has always been a factor with this car (The Black Plague). The engine is new, but everything around it is 11 years old. Aluminum-to-rubber composite hoses fail constantly, at about $100 a piece. The Miami heat here (not the team :( does not help. The LT1 also runs that retarded reverse cooling flow that just confuses the issue. I appreciate your response, and hope that others with similar issues will contact me. I paid 5K for the car 23 months ago , and have paid 17K in upgrades and repairs since then. That's 22 thousand dollars gentlemen! 22 Grand for a 10-year old car! One that has enjoyed a total lack of abuse and constant maintenance. AAGHAGarhGAGA! :banghead: Call me mad or stubborn, but I'm sure you can appreciate why I want to at least keep this thing reliable enough for runs to the FUCKING CORNER MARKET *(ahem)

I appreciate helpful responses.

* I apollogize to the forum for my language.

Well unfortunetly the LT1's fans are set from the factory to come on way too late. within 40 - 30 degree's of overheating for the first and like 20 degree's of overheating for the second. However its not very common for LT1's to blow head gaskets unless like creeping said, you have a cooling system issue. One thing I would do if I were you, if you and when you get her repaired is reprogram your fans and install a 160 degree stat. Sorry to hear about your losses buddy. That sucks bug time.

John

Be sure you are bleeding the coolant hoses when you install water/ coolant. If you don't air pockets can (and likely will) get trapped in the heads and cause hot spots like which will cause the problems you have. There is a bleeder screw for the top radiator hose on your car (or should be)

I owned a '95 T/A out here in Los Angeles and we had every bit as much heat in "the valley" as you would in Fla. My car ran well until I got into hot rodding it. then I had to upgrade the radiator. i bought the "Be Cool" radiator. Not cheap but that did the trick. It was almost 2x as thick as the stock radiator and made of aluminum. it had a much better cooling surface area.

It's a good suggestion to use the lower thermostat and reprogram your cooling fans. you can do this with the hypertech power programmer and the SLP 160 degree thermostat. It's also a good suggestion to check the basics- make sure your fans are working and make sure your radiator isn't clogged.

You should be using distilled water since you are running aluminum parts. regular tap water has contaminants that will help corrode the aluminum.

However, the factory running hot settings shouldn't be causing the head gasket to fail. engieneers designed the car to run hot for emmissions reasons. For us hot rodders, this isn't helpful. I think you should be sure evertyting else is up to par first and that you have all the air pocket out of the cooling system.

I hope this is helpful!

Sorry if I offended you with the "check the cooling system" response, its just sometimes people overlook the basics or just don't know a whole lot about cars on here.
I agree that an upgraded radiator would be your next best bet if all the basic stuff isn't fixing the problem. The thermostat and fan reprogram would be great too. Though i think you must be getting it pretty hot to blow these head gaskets as I had a '94 t/a that had 117K miles and I pegged the needle and didn't blow the head gaskets. Just out of curiosity, what head gasket brand did you use?
And I do understand wanting to keep the car. I have over $6k invested in a car thats not worth $2K for sentimental as well as other reasons. Hopefully you can fix this issue without having to spend too much more time and money. Good luck.

i have a 1996 trans am i just bought in january and about two months ago it started running hot and after replacing the temp sensor to the pcm, both hoses, the thermostat and radiator cap i finally took it to the shop and found out i had two finger size holes in my radiator we had no idea that was it because when its sitting still you won't see any antifreeze on the ground because it runs out only while driving because it needs the pressure. long story short the dealer sold me a car with a patched radiator it was like that when i bought it i just didn't know. it was suppose to be a reputable dealership but who knows they are probably the ones that patched it. there was also a hole in the recovery tank. at least its over it took two months to figure it out. my fans were also only comin on when the ac was on because i needed the temp sending unit which is on the front of the water pump in a 5.7 liter v8 between 93 and 96. if u find out its the fans try that if u haven't already or the three relays in your relay box.