lt1 overheating

[Italian Stallion]

Originally Posted by TheV6Guy

Yea that's the car I'm talking about. Been sittin at the gas station on a donut for the past few days

yeah lol thats mine. its a 97 with an ls1 front bumper, fenders and hood.

[Italian Stallion]

just got a call back from the mechanic, said the heads are bad and will cost around 2 grand to fix..not too sure what to do right now?

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by Italian Stallion

just got a call back from the mechanic, said the heads are bad and will cost around 2 grand to fix..not too sure what to do right now?

Ehhh. Get a second opinion.

For a double head swap at a mechanic that seems kind of low, too.

[Italian Stallion]

Originally Posted by WildBillyT

Ehhh. Get a second opinion.

For a double head swap at a mechanic that seems kind of low, too.

well my father is good friends with the mechanic so he doesnt charge me as much.. but thats the 2nd mechanic who told me it was the heads.

[Blackbirdws6]

def get a second opinion. Did he say specifically how the heads were "bad"?

[sweetbmxrider]

LT1's are pretty notorious for blowing head gaskets. If you drove on the car with the temp wayyy high, you warped the head. Both gaskets being bad at the same time is unlikely, nevermind the heads. Though if you ever wanted to go fast, this would be the time to do heads/cam etc.

[Blacdout96]

Find yourself a set of cast iron LT1 heads from an old police car. You add weight, but they flow a little better stock then the camaro LT1 heads, cheaper to get a set, and less prone to head warping compared top aluminum heads.

[LTb1ow]

Originally Posted by Blacdout96

Find yourself a set of cast iron LT1 heads from an old police car. You add weight, but they flow a little better stock then the camaro LT1 heads, cheaper to get a set, and less prone to head warping compared top aluminum heads.

This is lame advice, no offense.

Iron impy heads normally mean press in rocker studs, a heavier head, and less timing you can run before detonation. Just not at all worth it for the marginal cfm gain, that with a stock cam, won't help anyway.

With LT1s in the very bottom of the barrel in terms of appeal/want, a set of good aluminum heads can be found for dirt cheap.

[Italian Stallion]

Originally Posted by LTs1ow

This is lame advice, no offense.

Iron impy heads normally mean press in rocker studs, a heavier head, and less timing you can run before detonation. Just not at all worth it for the marginal cfm gain, that with a stock cam, won't help anyway.

With LT1s in the very bottom of the barrel in terms of appeal/want, a set of good aluminum heads can be found for dirt cheap.

alright..i really dont have alot of experience with the motor but is there anywhere or awebsite i could get the stock heads for cheap?

[Italian Stallion]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

LT1's are pretty notorious for blowing head gaskets. If you drove on the car with the temp wayyy high, you warped the head. Both gaskets being bad at the same time is unlikely, nevermind the heads. Though if you ever wanted to go fast, this would be the time to do heads/cam etc.

i never let the needle go into the red, but if i didnt just do the whole trans re build i would be all over the heads and cam, my buddy just bought an e303 cam fox his foxbody and it sounds awesome.

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by Italian Stallion

alright..i really dont have alot of experience with the motor but is there anywhere or awebsite i could get the stock heads for cheap?

Try here in the classifieds, somebody may have something.

[zraffz]

Too bad my motor isn't going to be done for another month or so... I'd give you the heads.

[Italian Stallion]

Originally Posted by zraffz

Too bad my motor isn't going to be done for another month or so... I'd give you the heads.

damn

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by Italian Stallion

damn

wait it out?

[zraffz]

I know the mechanic who's going to do the head gaskets. Confirmed it, both gaskets are certainly blown. The mechanic isn't a slouch.

[sweetbmxrider]

So how are we buying heads for this then? Blown head gaskets means check the heads, not throw some used ones on and hope for the best. Decking your stockers won't cost much if its needed.

[S.J.SLEEPER]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

So how are we buying heads for this then? Blown head gaskets means check the heads, not throw some used ones on and hope for the best. Decking your stockers won't cost much if its needed.

[Pampered-Z]

1) First look and make sure the radiator isn't blocked, like you plastic bag got stuck in front of the radiator.

2) Run the car with the rad cap off as well. Make sure your not just dealing with a bad cap.

3) Take the thermo completely out, run the car and see if you have coolant flowing. You should see a nice stream coming from the head vent tube which dumps back into the rad about 2" below the cap. Since the thermo is in the water pump it could haqve been the wrong one or bad, or even people have gotten them in there upside down, not sure how they did this, but it's been done. Check the hoses and make sure they are all getting warm, so you know if there is a blockage somewhere, could even be in the radiator.

4) Keep bleeding the system until you only get fuild. Putting the car on ramps can help as well. bleed it cold and when hot. Some times you have to do this 5-6 times until it's all out.

If you have blown a head gasket, you should be getting allot of bubbles in the coolant or it smeals like exhaust? I would also expect two blown head gaskets to push the coolant out the overflow and you would see fuild loss in the radiator. So it dones't really sound like 2 blown gaskets?

[Blacdout96]

/\ sounds like a good cheap set of test to do.

As for the cast iron, I just said that so he could get it back on the road cheap, if there was any modding he was going to do, he could purchase aluminum heads down the road, while keeping the vehicle on the road. but if aluminum heads are going for almost as much as cast iron, then no point in getting the impy heads. Just make sure what ever road you take, when you take those heads off, have them checked by a machine shop.

[sweetbmxrider]

Stock aluminum castings are worth about $200

[Blacdout96]

That's pretty damn cheap.