88 z24 cavalier 2.8L blown head gasket pls help ...

[coocoo44]

Hello, I'm new to forum and what a great forum it is.
I would need a suggestion or advice , My z24 88 convertible has blown a head gasket, it has 227,000 km (in canada) or 136,000 miles i think that is a good conversion.
Anyways it will cost me 1000$ canadian to fix it ,maybe a bit more , so is there a cheaper way to fix this problem or a much better solution than just fixing the head gasket has mechanics will just take it all apart and do whatever it is to make it work.
It is a convertible and I have a hard time just leaving it to the scrap yard even though just about any garage will only give me 500$ for it.

Any suggestions
Pls help.

[robz84monte]

if its only a head gasket why not do it yourself. generally speaking head gaskets are not that hard to change.

[coocoo44]

Originally Posted by robz84monte

if its only a head gasket why not do it yourself. generally speaking head gaskets are not that hard to change.

Ok but where do I start???

[ChuckSimms]

I had the same problem with my 88 Z24 convertible...I replaced the engine with a 3.1 from a 91 Sunbird Gt, and it runs like snot!
With new water pump, belt, hoses, plugs, wires ets...it ran me $850. I did get someone to do it for me, and I helped. But I have a much better engine, and this will last me a long time now.

You may have a hard time finding a 3.1 engine though. They are hard to come by, and I got pretty good deal. But I think whatever it costs, I would agree that it's worth keeping. Replacing the head gasket yourself wouldn't be a bad idea. I wanted to upgrade anyways, so that's why I replaced the whole thing.

[coocoo44]

Originally Posted by ChuckSimms

I had the same problem with my 88 Z24 convertible...I replaced the engine with a 3.1 from a 91 Sunbird Gt, and it runs like snot!
With new water pump, belt, hoses, plugs, wires ets...it ran me $850. I did get someone to do it for me, and I helped. But I have a much better engine, and this will last me a long time now.

You may have a hard time finding a 3.1 engine though. They are hard to come by, and I got pretty good deal. But I think whatever it costs, I would agree that it's worth keeping. Replacing the head gasket yourself wouldn't be a bad idea. I wanted to upgrade anyways, so that's why I replaced the whole thing.

I have found out it is going to cost me 1400 $ , alot of money , I got it for sale now , I got a few buyers, but now the f****en thing does not want to start , it is just one thing after another, the mechanics on these cars are awful, still don't know what to do.??

thks for the info.

['94CavyRs3.1]

head gaskets are easy as hell...all u do is start at the top...it will only take you about 2ish hours to do the whole thing if u have not done it before...but i just replaced head gaskets on a my 88 chevy 1500 and it only took 30 mins...just took off the throttle body, intake then the heads...took out the old head gaskets cleaned everything up and put new gaskets on the whole top end. but seeing i have been working on cars for a while know i knew what i was doing. but it shouldnt be that hard to fix.

How long has it been sitting with out being started? cuz if it has been a while then one of the piston rings maybe be rusted to the cyclinder. and then u have to turn the motor over by hand. Get a socket on the crank pully and see if u can turn it over that way, or u can do it by the flywheel.

And if there is antifreeze in the cyclinder u wanna find out which cyclinder has it in there..by taking out the spark plugs and seeing which one has antifreeze/liquid on it...and then turn it over just for a second to get it out of the cyclinder, cuz if u dont u could bend a valve and then u would have to get them fixed.

This may seem like a lot of work but its not really...only takes a little while and u will get her running again.

[coocoo44]

Thks for the reply , haven't checked any of the plugs yet , but don't have a clue why it doesn't start. So it is easy to change head gaskets?
So why do these garages charge so much and why do they say it will take 8-12 hours??

I still don't know where to start how about any books or a step by step instruction I can use toget it all done.


Any ideas ?

THks

['94CavyRs3.1]

there migh be some places on line on how to change a head gasket.

or u can go to ur local library and see if they have a book on specific cars.

And garages charge like 500 some bucks to do a head gasket because they take there time and check every little possiblity on what happened.

[coocoo44]

Thks for the info but the library around here sucks not much there, also the garges do charge way too much , I'll try to find something on-line.

[wannabee_viper]

go to your nearest parts store and pick up on of those haynes or chiltons manuals on the car, they don't go into extreme details, but they do give you enough information on how to do it yourself. when i changed the headgasket on my dads old 90cavy it took me about 6hrs, but that was with limited tools, piss poor cold as hell, and rainy weather. if it was a perfect day and i had all the tools i probably could have done it in a couple hours

[coocoo44]

Thks I'll try that those books should help if I decide to keep it and not sell it.Still don't know yet.


Thks