Monday, November 22, 2010

Manually change head gasket in 97 saturn sl1?

searching all over the internet in forums and such, i narrowed my problem to a blown head gasket. i've already changed the water pump and the thermostat and its still having problems. there is black soot in the inside walls of the coolant tank and coolant drains really fast. if i let the car sit there running it will be fine but when i start driving it will start to overheat. a little bit of white smoke comes out of the tail pipe also. i'm a do-it-yourselfer and i know a lot of people say that if you have a blown head gasket then you're better off getting another car, but i was thinking if i pick up the haynes manual, i can knock it out in a weekend. my brother is a mechanic but he said that if he fix it it will take him weeks cause he works everyday (including weekends) but if i get the manual then i can fix it myself. how hard would something like this be for someone who is very intermediate with fixing cars but is an expert at following directions? how long would it take me to get to it and put everything back? (not including getting the head checked first)Manually change head gasket in 97 saturn sl1?Be prepared to spend money on another head. The lost foam casting process Saturn uses for casting their heads produces rather porous and inferior castings. You could have a crack or other issue, not just a gasket. Techinically it is not that difficult if you have a manual and tools.Manually change head gasket in 97 saturn sl1?cant win with this motor/these engines are known for this problem and turn out junk/seen dozens like this/doesnt pay to fix/the block is bad