John Row

The car has 210,000 (well cared for) miles on it. It seems to have a blown head gasket on the left side (big clouds of sort of sweet smelling steam, all coolant gone, oil is still black).

The local shop agreed with the diagnosis. The he said, "too bad it's an LT1." Worst engine to remove the heads. Chevy made the block casting a bit thinner to save weight. The head bolts go through the block into the water jacket. The last few threads sometimes rust badly and wipe out the threads in the block as they are taken out. They you have to helicoil, the helicoil leaks, on and on... He said it doesn't always happen, just giving me the worst case. (That tends to be the way my luck goes anyway).

Anyone have a similar experience?

Thanks,
JR

STL94LT1

I've never heard of that problem.

96GS#007

Muffin

Unless I miss my guess every small block starting with the 265 had the head bolts penetrating the water jacket. That's why all rebuild guides tell you to put some sealant on the bolts when they are installed. My first reaction is find another mechanic.

jaa1992

I didn't have that problem when I did the head gaskets on my 92.

Do it yourself, just make sure to use new head bolts and sealant on the threads.

neverendingprojects

It sounds like the car may have a bad head gasket, but I would definitely not do buisiness with the local shop after a retarded story like that about the LT1 engines...

larry00

Same here tuner blew both head gaskets over revving W/ Procharger . Put new gaskets and Rev-Limiter and no problems.

That many miles time for a freshen cause a fresh valve job might finished the bearings .

This unleaded fuel is really easy on rings and cylinder walls.

You can often find a 350 with a lot of miles on it and you can still see the x-hatching on the walls when you tear them down.

You didn't say how hot it got but you will have to get the head checked for sure.

John Row

Thanks, guys. The shop is normally pretty good. I don't think he was trying to BS me, just raising the worst case scenario.

I think what happened was the Mezier pump stopped running (I've had issues with this in the past when the relay got old) when the head lights were turned on. I didn't get any warning lights, and didn't notice any hi-temps. It wasn't till the next day when I started it up that I got the low-coolant light.

ChrisWhewell

Agree with "Muffin". Sounds like they're setting you up for a big invoice. Lots of chevs head bolts go through to the water passages, back a few decades, its not unique to Lt-1. Those who use fear as a tactic are best avoided, IMO. What you will notice is that the combustion chambers of the affected cylinders are totally devoid of carbon deposits, which means that combustion of an ethylene glycol / water mixture adjunct is an effective carbon scavenger. Those recognizing this can use its principle to benefit, controllably, to eliminate octane requirement increase, ORI. It's effectively a variation of that referred to by the old timers as the "synthesis gas" reaction. carbon plus water yielding H2 and an oxide of carbon. Leaves the cc's shiny new.

REDC4CORVETTE

The mechnic is right ,with that many miles on the engine he doesn't know if you have kept the cooling system clean.On LT1's that are in limos and such are not taken care of and the bolts do rust into the block.I always use MR Gasket B-2 on the threads of the head bolts so that does not happen if I need to remove the heads down the road.
At least he let you know up front.

slickfx3

so over time the rusty bolts contaminate the coolant, no matter how well you try to keep it clean right? is this with all c4's?

STL94LT1

It's not the bolts that rust. But, most engine blocks over time will see some internal corrrosion.

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JR,
I am seriously encouraged that you hit 210,000 miles... our 94 LT1 is getting close to 99k, and I would LOVE to make 210k! Congratulations!

Please keep us informed as the work progresses!