Head Gasket On a 5.0 (VT)

[mofo sixx]

mine went yesterday,

anyone have an idea of the cost i might be up for?

and is this something i could potentially do myself? , i am not a mechanic but have some skills i guess

cheers

[Pub247]

Fairly easy job to do yourself get a workshop manual and folloe it and you wont have a problem best to do both sides while your at it. Give yourself as few days to do it dont expect to get it done in a few hours though doing it in a day is easy enough
Vrs gasket kit will cost about $100 plus $50 odd for your manual you'll need a torque wrench aswell as some headbolt sealer and some silicon sytle sealnat though its not really necessary
Getting a mechanic to do will cost over about $1000 maybe more maybe less

[mofo sixx]

Fairly easy job to do yourself get a workshop manual and folloe it and you wont have a problem best to do both sides while your at it. Give yourself as few days to do it dont expect to get it done in a few hours though doing it in a day is easy enough
Vrs gasket kit will cost about $100 plus $50 odd for your manual you'll need a torque wrench aswell as some headbolt sealer and some silicon sytle sealnat though its not really necessary
Getting a mechanic to do will cost over about $1000 maybe more maybe less

cheers,

being cast iron, should i still get the heads machined? ,

[Pub247]

not really necessary cast iron are waay less prone to warping than alloy heads. You can check with a straight edge and feeler anything over 6thou should be machined but i'd say you should be fine just make sure you clean the surfaces up good and dont score them with big scratches or gouges.

I've done a few holden 6's and a couple v8's without machining heads and never had a problem with the head gasket blowing again

[mofo sixx]

cheers mate

will keep you posted on my progress,

grab myself a manual tomorrow from repco & attack it later in the week

[Pub247]

cheers mate

will keep you posted on my progress,

grab myself a manual tomorrow from repco & attack it later in the week

You learn a lot and you'll save a lot of money plus you'll get more satisfaction aswell remember to ask if you run into any dramas

[mofo sixx]

You learn a lot and you'll save a lot of money plus you'll get more satisfaction aswell remember to ask if you run into any dramas

cheers

prolly take you up on that around thurs/fri next week

which manual do u recommend? , Haynes?

[Pub247]

gregories are better though haynes do have a couple of thign gregories dont but overall gregories

[davway]

some say you should discard the head bolts and replace with new ones too.
totally up to you, ive done heads with and without renewing the bolts and never had any issues because of it.

[Pub247]

some say you should discard the head bolts and replace with new ones too.
totally up to you, ive done heads with and without renewing the bolts and never had any issues because of it.

As long as theyre not threaded or stretched i dont see a problem reusing them unless your going performance or forced induction setup then its not going to be an issue. Cleaning them is essential though getting rid of the old sealant and make sure your holes are nice and clean too.

[mofo sixx]

so given these bolts will be rusty am i running the risk of snapping them off in the block?

any tips to avoid this happening?

lube them up before unbolting or something?

[Pub247]

theyre unlikely to be rusty some v8 headbolts go water you need to use a special sealant on them can get it from repco or holdenor bursons called holden bolt sealer or some crap its about 50 a tin and gets you high as a kite. There'd be something similar that does the same job for less money though