So, as the title reads i'm sure you can pretty much guess what happened. I started my car to leave work about 4 days ago, and saw a bunch of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. I knew then what was wrong. I got home and let my car sit for 2 days till i had time to tear her down, just hoping i was wrong.

Today i noticed a few drops of coolant below the drivers side cat, and immediately remembered seeing what looked like a leak coming from the heads near cylinder 7 from a couple weeks ago while i was under the car.

I pulled out cylinder 7's spark plug to be greeted by approximately 1 cup of coolant. YEAH!

I put in a couple of hours and will post progress of the fix.

FIX-What do you think? (car 128,000 miles, LT1, DRM coilovers, New OPTI, Plugs, Griffin Radiator, ALWAYS looking for performance)

Should i just replace the head gasket on the drivers side or pull both?

Pull the engine out and buy an LT4 that has 59,000miles on it from a reputable corvette shop that i frequent? $3,800

If i do pull the engine i would drop in a hot cam and 1.6 rollers (i already have the rollers in my garage)

I just fear that i wont be happy with the LT4, and what i really want is a 383.

IMPORTANT:
What do i need to make sure to DO or NOT do? TIPS, etc. I have only pulled the intake manifold so far, what do i need to know next from your experience?

 

Notice the coolant splashed on the plug boot.


Amount of coolant leaked out on its own over 2 nights.


This is the coolant that poured out of the spark plug hole after i pulled it!


Removing the Fuel rail, 3 bolts 10mm.


Push in the retainer clip and pull up to remove.


Make sure not to loose the little white O-Rings!


Nicely placed the rail on the windshield.


Remove wire retainers / fuel rail cover retainers.


Release the serpentine belt, then remove the alternator bracket's three bolts. 2 14mm, one 13 mm bolt.


Remove the two bolts that hold the alternator to the accessory bracket.




Unbolt EGR.


Remove all the bolts holding down the intake manifold.


Pull the Mani.


LOOKS LIKE AN OPEN HEART SURGERY!




Rear.


Front.


Pull the valve covers.

 

Removed Exhaust Manifold




Removing rocker arms and push rods.

 

Pulling her out.....We had some fun, but it was time! LOL






I decided to replace the clutch whil i was here!


Gross!








NOW THATS SEXY!




Had to get shorter bolts for the Flywheel.




Not exactly the cleanest.


LT4 Going In

 

Back together! They will be the best of friends, i just know it!


Drive Shaft and C Beam IN! (It wasn't as hard as yall said!)

 

Tips:
Drain the coolant and pull the knock sensors before you pull the heads
Have containers for your parts per each side
Be deliberate and FOLLOW the FSM when putting it all back together.

First time I did it I bought new ARP head & intake bolts.
Glad I did, this is the third time pulling and replacing heads on my car since then and they have not stretched at all. the OEM bolts were so stretched they wouldn't come out of the heads without persuasion.
Don't forget there are a bunch of head bolts you can't get to unless you unbolt the exhaust manifolds!
Use the permatex sealant on the head bolt threads, use the ARP lube on the heads.
Here is what I would have done if I could.

Good local machinist, price valve job, having heads squared, replace springs, retainers, guides, port match exhaust to your exhaust gasket of choice, port match intake ports to intake gasket. Then port intake to intake gasket. If this winds up in the $1500 range consider new AFR heads. Add 1.6 RR and probably new pushrods and lifters.

You should replace both head gaskets.

What I did heads squared, valve job, new guides, new springs and retainers, IIRC the local guy was less than $200.

It will be a learning experience if you've never done a v8 before.

 

383 YEA BABY!!!

 

for future ref u do not have to pull the injector rail seperately, simply unbolt the intake and it will all just lift right off after u pull the harness and a few vac lines as a unit. Try to clean the motor with fresh oil, a shop vac and a toothbrush the best your can. Yours doesnt seem to gunked up so you sould be ok......Me personally id just replace the 1 side......i dont see anyreason why u would replace the motor with a used 3800$ LT4 when u really need a few hours and a 30$ gasket, though im surprised u didnt hydrolock the motor with all that coolant that came out when u pulled the plug, but as long as she isnt knocking id jsut replace the gasket and drive the hell out of it. Also remember to clean out the threaded holes that the head bolts go into so you get an accurate torque reading from your wrench, When i did my first LT1 head years and years ago i got 30ft/lbs before the bolt even touched the head....i jsut broke out an old head bolt and went in and out a bunch of time on a few select holes just to make sure i was bottoming out on the head before attempting to torque to spec, also torque in a circular motion fron the center outwards in 3 steps ending at 65 FT lbs.......people will say u need new headbolts but i have done more LT1 heads then i can count and you do not need new headbolts......it must have been missfiring pretty badly when i started the day u first noticed the problem huh? That white smoke stinks pretty bad and lingres for a while........

 

also having your heads reworked in an LT1 with NO CAM WORK will hurt youtr performance, I once went through a place called "jim oddy's" automotive to have a set of lt1 heads worked over, The specialize in race motors, oddy was on the cover of summit racing catolog like 3 years ago so hes very well known, 3 angle valve job, intake porting, bowl porting, ti retainers new springs, i mean these things looked like artwork, i bolted them on expecting to do wheelies and the car litterally felt slower......i took a 95 formula bolted these heads on it and 2 weeks later got wasted by a bone stock 94 trans am with 160k on it! Porting your LT1 heads with the stock cam is simply too much airflow going through the motor that doesnt have the cam to support it......

 

what do u expect they are torqued to 65 ft/lbs so i dont think they are goint to finger out, lol u better have a pipe on the end of that 1/2inch drive ratchet...........your stock bolts will be fine trust me

 

and obviously whatever side head you are working on you WILL have to pull that side exhaust manifoldt

 

lol and also port matching your intake to your heads is a big no no as well unless you have CAM WORK!

 

best of luck

hopefully it's just the gasket

 

I would definately pull both heads.If you dont you will regret it. Good Luck

 

looks like the accessory bracket is going to be a pain in the ****! I cant even see the bolts that well. Im just making some more progress with trying to remove the exhaust mani.
:smas h:
Tips for the accessory bracket?

 

Replace both head gaskets. You still should have another 80,000 miles in the engine. Clean the valley. Check the oil in the pan for water contamination. If you find water, time to pull the pan.

 

Based on your pics - it appears to me that your engine is pretty sludged up. The shots of the underside of the valve covers appear to show ALOT of sludge. The valley looks pretty nasty too. This all might be the result of driving with a bit of a coolant leak, with some coolant getting into the oil and if so - I'd be concerned about the bottom end and bearings. Surprised that you didn't say it was knocking, so maybe you're going to be lucky. Just wondering....have you owned the car for long? - regular oil changes, good quality oil? Don't want to sound like a doomsday sayer, but compared to what I found in my '85 with 200,000 km on it - it was immaculate compared to what I think I can see under your valve covers - I've only used Mobil 1 synthetic since purchasing the car 5 years ago.

 

So rockers and push rods are out, and all bolts holding down the cylinder head have been removed. I am able to wiggle it about 1/4 inch up and down but i can't pull it off. Their is a plug catching on the accessory bracket, but i should be able to still pull it off right? Am i missing something here? Does the accessory bracket HAVE to be pulled off, and if so i cant see the bolts at all. I'm looking in the FSM now.

 

With that much coolant in the cylinder, my fear would be that you hydraulic'd the hole, and bent the connecting rod.
Once the head is off, you will need to pay extra attention to that cylinder.

 

They must think that LT4 is made of gold, not a good deal.

Just curious, what motor oil do you use and how frequently changed?