That sucks.

But are you the guy who replaced parts of the rear during the school year? Maybe some of your classmates can come give you a hand? Or maybe your teacher lives local to you?

 

That sucks Will, if I was nearby I'd certainly lend you a hand (although I know very little, but could offer a bit of muscle).

What we could do with is a local buddies database or something (maybe an addon to the member locator), where members willing to help each other with these kind of problems can look each other up.

I will tackle some things, but most of it is beyond doing alone. I did do my ABS system, but I'm still afraid to tackle my water pump (although after reading this I think I need to do it sooner rather than later). Having someone local willing to lend a hand would be cool. :chevy

 

That's definately a pisser Will, but NOT a hard thing to do if you've got help from somebody that knows what he's doing. It's just literally taking crap apart, putting the new gasket in and putting crap back together.

Even if it turns out that your head is cracked, you can probably get one pretty inexpensively. Hell, you could always get some used Vortec heads, along with a carb & intake for less than 1 replacement head, and you'll be WAY ahead of the game on the power side too.

But anyway... don't sell. Have somebody help you fix it and you'll be much better off.

 

You can do it Will !!!! take lots of pictures where stuff goes. tell ma it'll be good experience, somethin you can allways use. Maybe she can help with rides, or whatever.
If you let it go your gona take a beatin, you will allways regret it.
Keep the faith.. :seeya

 

I don't believe the CF maniflold will bolt up to vortec heads. :confused: 84 CF 91 ZR-1

 

Correctamundo!

 

I say what others said before: its not that difficult, you can do it.

I had this same experience this spring, luckily I have a friend who knows what he is doing and with his help my engine is now running strong again. It took us like 4 days of actual work but that included some porting, painting the parts, fixing a broken exhaust flange etc. etc. You can expect something like this: 1 day to rip it apart, 1 day to clean the parts and gasket surfaces while heads are in machine shop work and 1 day to reassemble. Then 1 more day when you check everything several times and fire her up, change coolant and oil couple of times etc.

My recommendations:
Get a shop manual or at least Haynes manual. There you can find out what (and how) accessories need to be removed to get the heads out. Also important is to know torque numbers and correct torquing sequence. When putting things back silicone and thread sealant need to be put in the right places. This is all in the books.

Get a complete Felpro top end gasket kit and replace all gaskets you take out to be sure they are ok when you are done. Then make sure somebody tells you where to put silicone and thread sealant in addition to the gaskets. Get the heads checked in a machine shop, and while there they can make sure the gasket surface is straight. If they are cracked, contact some of the Vette salvage yards and get a replacement. It might be a good idea to replace valve seals too, they are inexpensive - actually I think they come with the Felpro kit(?).

Oh, yes. When its open let somebody knowledgeable take a look to figure out why the head gasket blew so you can eliminate the cause. Sometimes Vette head gaskets just burn, usually near 7 cylinder - don't know why.

Tools: nothing too fancy is needed, a set of sockets and maybe couple of torx bits (not sure about '84 though). Can anybody who knows '84s tell for sure? Are the head, intake, exhaust manifold bolts metric or inches in '84?

Don't feel too bad, this is a good, learning experience. When you are done you know much more about your car and you dare to tackle with other repairs too!! Then you are no more in the mercy of expensive mechanics anymore!! You will end up saving thousands :D

Good luck! Hope there is some Forum members near who can give you a hand/lend the tools.

ToniH


[Modified by ToniH, 9:55 AM 7/12/2002]

 

no torx required for the 84, everythings metric, except the head bolts, are standard.
And just cause i have it handy, the complete felpro intake set is part
MS 91440
get that, a set of head gaskets, and a set of valve cover gaskets, and an extra tube of rtv, the one in the felpro kit is a little small.

 

Well first off.........yeah blown gaskets are pretty inexpensive........but the labors a b****. Time consuming. Fate pretty much has you by the ***** though this time. Cuz Oh My is right. No one's gonna buy a car as is with blown gaskets. They're careful enough as it is when they see an 84 vette in the paper. If they aren't they're dumbf*** and just asking for trouble. You're gonna either have to grease it up with a wrench in your hand and fix it, or just wait...save up cash and pay a mechanic, or you're gonna have some 1984 lawn decor all made possible by the folks at GM :p: I guarantee you though, selling it like that would be a colossal problem unless you run into a grade A moron with cash and most likely a past of riding on the short yellow bus. You may see people like that, but rarely ever will you see them with money. Therein lies your problem. :yesnod:

 

That's why I said to get an intake & carb if he went with vortec heads. Overall cost might still come out at or below the cost of 1 replacement head and he's far better off.

 

$1500 is a ripoff. The mechanic probably sees a kid who doesn't know anything driving a vette and sees a chance to make a few bucks. I'd try to do it yourself. If you don't feel capable, try Paramus automall. Its close enough to tow to there from you and they should be able to give you a price over the phone. There are other shops around as well. Call and get some estimates. The gasket is cheap. As long as nothing else is screwy, it should be a few hours labor, not $1500!

 

Changing your head gaskets will seem like a walk in the park compared to a carburetor conversion. Other than a tuning and wiring nightmare you may not pass a tailpipe test in New Jersy. However it has been done. Good luck 84 CF 91 ZR-1 :nono:

 

Will,

Sorry to hear the bad news. Please listen to these guys as they know what they are talking about. You will be hard pressed to get anyone to buy your car at a fair price with a blown head gasket. I am not nearly as experienced as most of the guys offering advice here but I also own an 84 and have gone as deep as the heads a few months back when I installed my X-ram intake. It will make for a very long weekend but it is not a tough repair; we can walk you though it you get stuck on something. It would be a great opportunity for you to learn about your engine along the way.

I don't want to start a TBI / TPI / Carb battle here, but my 2 cents is: If you can gather a little cash you might want to consider getting an X-Ram intake for your crossfire while your in there. I would not recommend swapping your setup out to a carb; with the x-ram intake, higher psi fuel pump and larger TBI's you can run a pretty nice setup and not have extensive mods or need dive into computer issues. I've done a little research on this topic and will have some before and after dynos soon if you want me to be the guinea pig. :) I also included a couple of links below on the topic that might interest you. Let me know if you have any questions or need some advice
Ken

:cheers:

 

Oops, forgot the links:
http://www.x-ram.com http://www.goingfaster.com/spo/praisetbi.html
<http://photos.yahoo.com/kenfusion242>

 

Scorp, connect the dots for me on what you said. My head gasket leaks on my 85, and the w/p has never been changed out. Prev owner's mechanic says it needs to be. I'm new at this, and trying to learn from other's mistakes for once. I can do the labor myself, have resources.

Ok, head gasket goes, water gets into engine, other crap (oil, unburt fuel) gets into water? destroys pump? air/exhaust in water line? cavitates pump? I'm just guessing here. Throw me a bone.


[Modified by CentralCoaster, 11:16 PM 7/12/2002]

 

Will.......... What part of Florida are you in??? Let us misfits know. I'll give you a Florida Misfits Tee Shirt.

 

Port Charolette