Blew the head gasket

so heres the story went to change the thermostat today to a 160*, trying to keep the heat down while plowing pulled the horn off and no t stat. not thinking right i just put the new one in. got goin down the road to go home and over heat, and smoke. at the same time temp spiked and then went down to 200 (normal for having the plow on). got home ( just up the road ) and noticed i had a lot of white colored smoke coming from the drivers side exhaust. from memory this tells me head gasket on drivers side gone. so now i will have to do a head gasket job on the ol jeep, and i am wondering how long does it usually take to do a gasket job on a buick oddfire
how hard is it and is there certain things i should be looking for when i do the job ?
any info at all will be more than helpful as this will be the first time doing this. and also i belive this all happend because of the smaller radiator that the po had put in the jeep so will be looking for one of those in the near future. at the moment i just feel like this chainsawguy R)

 

I did it in my '71 CJ-6. Not too bad. Your Jeep looks kinda rusty in your avitar. I'd recommend pulling one or both of the fenders off, but it's not necessary.

I ordered a complete kit from NAPA with Fel Pro gaskets. Use Teflon sealant on the head bolts that hit water. Install the head gaskets dry. I cleaned up my heads with a Snap-On Crud Thug, but a wire wheel should do the same.

You probably don't have power steering. Soak the exhaust bolts in penetrating oil starting now so they'll come off w/out snapping in the head. Mine had fenderwell headers, so it was easier.

Yank the distributor and intake (you can leave the carb on). Pull the exhaust manifolds off, and loosen/remove the rocker arms. Pull the pushrods and head bolts. Yank the heads off.

You may or may not want to send the heads out to be checked and surfaced if you have time. I didn't - just stabbed 'em back on. No problems for me and my Jeep had plenty of power and got 17-18mpg with 4.88s, 31s, and an Overdrive at highway speeds. Was my daily-driver for over a year after the head gasket replacement. Still, as long as they're off it's cheap insurance to have 'em checked.

 

thank you for the info and ya the jeep is pretty rusty, but i have had the fender off when i got it and replaced it cause it was pretty bad. i will definetly soak the manifold bolts starting now ...how much time did it take you total to do the whole job. and would you be able to see if the if the head is warped besides sending them out to resurface?

 

Really no reason to pull the distributor, it isn't in the way. Other than that, what he ^^^^ said. Really no way to check warpage unless you have a straight edge.

 

For a V6, the head is not very long, so warpage should not be a problem unless it's been badly overheated. You can estimate any warpage with a straight-edge and a feeler gauge. If you have a framing square, that should work ok for a rough test. The shops use a precision straight edge, but a long machinists ruler or something like a framing square should work ok, within a thou or two.

Note that every head that I sent in came back surfaced. Maybe it's just the shop we used, but I expect you will get a recommendation for surfacing regardless of whether there's any warpage or not. Plenty of people just change out the gaskets with nothing done to the heads or block, ala Christian (Dummy) above - the blue Felpro gaskets seal fine without surfacing.

Do the exhaust manifolds have to come off? Usually they do not on V engines. Pretty sure a pro would leave them on and just pull them with the heads.

 

thats what i was hoping to do was leave them on. ive never had good luck taking the bolts out of a manifold R) thank you for all the info it definetly helps

 

haha thanks patrick i guess i will find out when i get to that point. i was just worried about breaking the bolts and then having more work to do. was my daily driver up till now. wasnt planning on shaving the heads as this will have to be done in one day at the shop i work in. unless they are visibly messed up....one can only hope....

 

If you pull both heads off at the same time, and especially if you send them out for work, I would advise that you mark the as to which side they came off of. You should put the head back on the side it originally came off of.

One quick way to see if the head is warped is to check the head fitment against the block. After you carefully clean the gasket surface of the head and the block, wipe with a rag and then spread a thin film of oil on the block surface. Carefully place the head on the block and then remove the head and see if there is good oil transfer to the head.


Another comment: If you find yourself in a situation where a head gasket blows when you aren't close to home, you can limp back to civilization by loosening the radiator cap, thus reducing the water pressure in the system, which forces water into the cylinder. You can then remove the spark plug from the affected cylinder and run on the remainder. I've done this with my 4 cylinder , and you have 6 cylinders, Get the beast home, drain the oil and replace with another oil change to get the water out of the crankcase. (Used oil is ok for the first change, because you should change it again with fresh oil. You shouldn't leave that brown watery oil in the crankcase while you diagnose the head problems or you may cause rust problems i the lower end.

 

If you pull both heads off at the same time, and especially if you send them out for work, I would advise that you mark the as to which side they came off of. You should put the head back on the side it originally came off of.

One quick way to see if the head is warped is to check the head fitment against the block. After you carefully clean the gasket surface of the head and the block, wipe with a rag and then spread a thin film of oil on the block surface. Carefully place the head on the block and then remove the head and see if there is good oil transfer to the head.


Another comment: If you find yourself in a situation where a head gasket blows when you aren't close to home, you can limp back to civilization by loosening the radiator cap, thus reducing the water pressure in the system, which forces water into the cylinder. You can then remove the spark plug from the affected cylinder and run on the remainder. I've done this with my 4 cylinder , and you have 6 cylinders, Get the beast home, drain the oil and replace with another oil change to get the water out of the crankcase. (Used oil is ok for the first change, because you should change it again with fresh oil. You shouldn't leave that brown watery oil in the crankcase while you diagnose the head problems or you may cause rust problems i the lower end.

You can use a cooling system pressure tester to apply pressure to the cooling system (you can drain the coolant first) If you apply about 10 lbs of pressure to the cooling system, you can find leaks in the cooling system by listening for air in the chambers. If you use a rubber hose in the spark plug hole and the other end in your ear, you can hear the air escaping into the problem chamber. This is a good test after you have replaced the head gasket to make sure the problem is fixed before adding water. Of course if head gasket is leaking the plugs will probably be wet.

 

thank you everyone for all the great info ordered my head kit today. no one in town could get it cause felpro was out ...luckily i found it on ebay from a felpro dealer only 50 bucks anyone wants the link let me knw