Need help with heag gasket replacement

90 SC auto finally blew the head gasket at 171,000 miles. as far as i know, it is the original gasket. I need as much info and precautions as possible from all you guys. When an EEC tester is ran on the car, the cylinder balance compression test shows cylinders 1 and 3 are down, so the educated guess is a warped head since cylinders 1 and 3 are on opposite ends of the passenger side head. Going to use Felpro gaskets and ARP studs. A complete walk-through tutorial on the procedure would be great, but even general info and precautions are appreciated. I need to do this with the engine in the car, no means to pull the engine at this time. Thanks everyone...

HG'S

Are you going to do HG"S and not rebuild engine at 170.000miles?

If you replace the head gaskets without rebuilding the rest of that 170,000 mile engine, that's asking for trouble. If you're just planning this as a temporary thing, and you plan to do the full rebuild later on when you have the time or $$$, that's different. Coolant probably got into your cylinders, you may have rusty piston rings, poor compression, lots of blowby, etc. If too much coolant got into the oil, you could have bearing damage. But who knows, you might get lucky.

Did you overheat when it happened? On my SC my HG's starting leaking and had to be replaced. I didnt do a rebuild of the engine since it was in good shape still after 170000 miles. I suggest you get a haynes or chilton manual before you tackle the job though. I used felpro HG's on mine and havent had a problem since. Oh and make sure you label all your cables and vacuum lines it will save you a lot of headache in the end.

I'm not going to do anything but the head gaskets at this time, I have no choice in the matter. I'm hoping someone has a step by step procedure for doing the head gaskets with the engine in the car. Also some info on the tightening pattern of the head bolts, and aren't the torque specs 30-50-70 over three passes? If anyone is from Kansas City and knows a good place to get my heads machined, please let me know. thanks everyone...

Yes it overheated and used massive amounts of water to get the car home. It used about 1 gallon every ten miles or so. No water in the oil either. And an entire smoke screen of white behind it everywhere it went, and it was sluggish to turn over which tells me there is some water in the cylinders.

Step by step, I dont think there is enough room on this server for that. get a book. Have the heads resurfaced and use sealent on the short head bolts. If you use the studs follow their recomended
tork specs. Very important to follow each step to the letter.

Just done mine also, remove the entire crowl. Including the part that holds the wiper motor. I haven't seen this mentioned any where, but it was alot easier to get some of the bolts out with it out of the way. Also, I found it easier to get to head bolts with the exhaust manifolds completely removed. Every thing else you will need to know is in any repair manual. If you don't have one, get one. These things can pay for themselves over and over with the repair cost you can save.

Goodluck, your going to need some, Biggin'