i have a 1996 2.2L coupe 200,238 miles, head gasket is going out in it. no oil in coolant or coolant in oil, just combustion gases in coolant. got the head gasket and bolts and all that good stuff. after talking to a couple people about getting my head machined i've run into a little problem with one person telling me one thing and another person telling me something different. talking to my buddy about it he had said to take my head to a certain shop in my area and they'll do a good job(he's been going there for a while) and after chatting with him about it i had another friend tell me not to machine the head or get a new one because the new -increased- combustion in the cylinders would basically blow my engine and to go to a junkyard and get a cylinder head that has around the same miles. i need some help because i'd what to think now. i would rather not blow my engine as i can't afford to go out and get a new engine. please help with any constructive comments or advice.
The friend telling you not to machine the head is a complete and utter idiot. Take it a reputable machine shop, have it checked out and then throw it on yourself.
I did head gasket on my one 99 at around that kinda miles, shaved head and runs mint still with little over 230,000 on it now
FuzzMASTA9
yeah i had called the shop im taking it to and talked to them and they said if anything they would have to put a head saver shim on it, but other than that i wouldnt have anything to worry about with my block going out from the compression. thank you for your comments!
is there any chance of that happening with a newi head or is that for higher compression engines? i had red online that its happened but no specific engines were named. its the first head gasket ive done(on my car) so ive never really looked into it till now.
You should be just fine as long as your bottom end doesn't have any problems to begin with. The block isn't hard to rebuild so no worries worst case scenario.
I reiterate my first post. I built the 2200 in my '98 so I'm not just telling you from what I've read.
I just got done replacing a head gasket on a 99 Sunfire 2.2 liter. It's a VERY tedious job that in retrospect would have been much more enjoyable with the vehicle up on ramps. Getting to the back side of the motor for the intake manifold bolts and studs it tricky. There is also a bracket that goes from one of the intake manifold bolts to the power steering pump, which once you know it's there, is easy to remove. The one I was doing was COATED in oil, so if you can, give the motor a good cleaning prior to beginning work (I wish I had done this prior to beginning mine). Also, if yours is a nasty as mine was, do yourself a favor and invest in some heavy duty disposable nitrile gloves. Cheap rubber gloves (medical type) will snag on everything and bust open.
Another big thing to suggest is to get a good torque wrench - one that is easily adjustable on the fly. The head bolts are torque to yield bolts which need to be torqued in a specific manner and you have to change the torque from 42 to 46 (if I recall correctly) than give an additional 90 degree turn. The torque sequence is clockwise and you have to alternate between 46 and 42 between just about every bolt. The Chiltons or Haynes manual is good for explaining this. Also, get a set of deep-well metric sockets if you don't already have them.
Hope that helps. This is my first head gasket I've ever done. I ended up buying a remanufactured head from Napa which may have turned out to be a mistake. I paid $420 for it, but it had two stripped out bosses for the rocker arm bolts, so I ended up having to use Perma-Coil inserts that they provided me. The head I took off was warped, but I probably should have at least taken it to a machine shop to have them check it and machine it if possible. I was trying to save myself a headache, but caused a different one instead.
yeah, i got the head gasket changed... but the problem almost got worse(exhaust gasses in coolant). idk what i did. all gaskets were new, i was given a head saver shim that i also put on( had the head milled so it was needed). should i have put copper spray on the head saver shim as well? it was some sort of metal. no rubber or composite material at all. i would like to find out what happened. but if its a cracked head(i dont think it is) im not going to mess with it as i have no more funds to put into my car
