how long does it take to do the HG's

If your gonna do it in one day, I'd suggest to start REALLY early and expect to get finished REALLY late. I would say a weekend would be more realistic, especially if you've never done it before.

I am getting finished w/ my blown head gasket, but that's a different story all together. I went from simply changing out a blown HG to getting my heads stage 2 port and polish, a balance and blueprinted block and completely cleaning and painting my engine and components and a whole lot more...2 months later :)

Just be aware of what you have to take off to get to your heads. It's a lot. And are your aluminum heads cracked or stressed at all?..rhetorical.

If you have any specific questions let me know. Like I said, I just finish this job.

Good luck,
Metalman
 
well... hmmm... i have all the tools necessery. i think i am going to do them myself because im not talking to my dad at the moment and hes the mechanic. i have the instructions on how to take them off. but im just wondering how long it would take because this is my only means of transportation. any other thoughts?
 
well after reading about air bubbles in the coolant overflow thingy. and how my coolant keeps dissappearing. and reading several articles about 1991 SC's having weak stock HG's im leaning on doing them. then again my car does have 170,000 miles ok it. i think i owe it to my car to replace its HG's. what do u think...
 
i done mine in about 6 hours and that is having never done them before now i can do it in about 2-3 hours but i suggest having the heads checked just in case and that could take awhile longer so what i would do is contact a machine shop and set an appointment to have yours checked so you won't have to wait because they are swamped just my opinion:D
 
i am always looking for a job working on cars i grew up with a mechanic of 25 years as a step father so i love it i also love sc's or tbirds in general when i got mine i went through and learned everything i could i am in the process of making a 9 sec bird so i know what it is to chang head gaskets:D
 
My roommate holds the record for weirdest place. He did it in 6 hours in our college parking lot. 'Course, it was a Stang, but it's all the same.
 
It didn't take me long at all to changes my head gaskets.
Just a little over 2 months.:D

Mike do you think you could find me a job.

But I did do a couple extra things while I had it down.

randy
 
Took me three months, but that was working on it in my few free hours each week... But most of that time was doing other stuff - the actual tear down took the better part of a day, and once everything was ready to replace, it was only a couple days work. But I like to take my time. And there were some delays getting parts, deciding on parts, etc...
 
LOL!!!! Randy I'm having a problem finding me a job! LOL!!!
I was just funin with him, but if he can change SC HG's in 2-3 hours thats AMAZING!!!! I bet he's just a blur moving around so fast. LOL!!! :D :eek:
 
the weirdest place i have ever changed head gaskets was in a grocery store parking lot and it only to 45 minutes but it was not my bird it was my uncles 5.0 stang and those are easy the only reason we did it there was because we were out of town otherwise we would have towed it to my house:cool:
 
It's a weekend job.

Mine had 172,000 when she blew. I haven't done this in 20 years. But with basic cleanup on all surfaces and getting all the replacement parts and torqing everything correctly and flushing everything and not missplacing any nuts and bolts, It still should be a weekend job. Take your time to double check everything. Speed kills.......I now have 1000 miles on new HG's and its running like a banshi........and as far as I know this has not been rebuilt. Cylinders looked good, faint cross hatching there, a little ridge at the top but it's ok. I roughly spent $300 and that included head gaskets, intake gaskets, head bolts, plugs, wires, O2 sensers, scotchbrite gasket remover for my cordless, oil, oil filter, and antifreeze.
 
eh long time

20 hours ...head gasket are real easy to change ...once you get down to them...:rolleyes: ...I believe the shop time on them is 9 hrs ...
but when she13 years old and has 210,000 klms ....and never been apart before.. plus winter driven ..let me tell you.. it's a different story

first off ... is your exhaust going to come off easy...have to get manifolds loose at the cats... to get them far enough ...out of the way of the lower row of head bolts ..nice to have spare set of exhaust manifolds ready to go ... and just cut the studs on the now old ones ..if there not going to undo ....I spent hours just doing exhaust ....and put some anti-sieze on them ...when it goes back together .. you may thank your self later ...

alot of time was spent cleaning [scaping] surfaces intake , heads
...seemed pretty straight forward to me ...till I disconnect the battery to start ....best of luck .. having a GO FOR [ a spare set of hands]to help will save you alot of time ......dave
 
3 hours? I assume you aren't getting the heads milled? You must like to do this job again.

I could honestly do it in a day if I started early at like 7:00 am, dropped the heads off at like 11:30 and then got them back that day, put it all back together, I'd be driving it around 5:00 pm. Thats if you don't change anything else other than the gaskets.

On mine I changed, plugs, wires, hoses, belts, tensioners, painted valve covers, painted brackets, painted pulleys, ported heads, cut off cats, changed cam and crank sensors, IAC and tps, and coolant temp sensor, t-stat, temp switch, did the fan mod, tb coolant bypass, new PCV valve, cleaned and painted blower, changed fluid, flushed radiator and block, etc...

I could do it over a weekend and I'd charge $500.00 for my time/labor w/ supplied gasket set and head bolts plus you pay for machine work.

Look at my member page 2 for engine pics of my painted blower setup.
 
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the only reason i can do it that fast is because i did not have heads milled i had another set that was o.k. i have a friend that works at a machine shop and if i ever had to take the heads off and then get them milled it would probably take around 5-6 hours honestly that is with the car right in front of my garage and in there i have just about every tool i could need either way the head gaskets aren't that bad and can make a world of difference:D
 
Oh ok. I can get a set of heads milled in about an hour and a half if I drop them off at this guy's house and he has the equipment in his garage. He's done the heads for 3 SC's around here.

Polarek Motorsports in Merrillville Indiana.
 
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