legacycentral bbs

looks like a blown headgasket for my 91 legacy ss.

what should be replaced while the headgasket gets replaced?

any suggestions. thanks.

How many miles on the engine since its last major tune-up?

Suggestions (depending on how much you wanna spend of course):

timing belt
timing belt tensioner
timing belt pulleys
water pump
valve cover seals
cam seals
check for leaky oil pump seal
water hoses for radiator and water pump, if they were pretty hard when you took them off, you can count on them leaking
thermostat
spark plugs
oil
etc....

you can also count on replacing the intake manifold gaskets and other brittle hoses that will break.

engine has 163K or so.

i just had the valve cover seals, grommets, plugs, changed a few hundred miles ago, change it again?

Oh I see, no need to change them then, as long as they aren't leaking.

It really depends how much you want to spend. I broke a valve in my engine and ended up rebuilding the entire thing cuz thats what I wanted to do.

At the very lease I would recommend:

replacing the timing belt if it has been over 60k since its been done.

checking ALL the timing belt pulleys for wear. spin them, if they make noise then change them. You can find combo deals on ebay where you geta timing belt and all the pulleys for under $100. The brand I got was PCI, they make pretty good stuff.

If the waterpump hasn't been changed in a long time you might want to consider this as well. Sure its another $100 or so dollars but it gives you a natural starting point for future maintenance as well as confidence and this way you wont be kicking yourself saying "I should have changed it when I had it all apart!!!"

When the heads are off check the cam seals and the seals for the oil pump. This is another thing that is always good to just change out if you've got it all apart and they haven't been replaced recently. Its all about preventative maintenance.

Hoses, hoses, hoses!!! Seriously, there are several hoses both water and pcv that can and will get damaged when you tear into the engine. So be prepared to replace these at will as well. Like I said earlier, don't risk re-using old and questionable hoses.

If you are taking it to a shop to be done and have any questions or concerns about what they are doing run it by this message board.

Check around and see how much to have your heads rebuilt.

how much does rebuilding heads usually cost?

From $180 to $400, depends upon the shop.

Where are you located?

i am in bay area, california.

I'll do it

imprezive, where are you located?

you have pm

No, you have Pre-Mentrual.

Tensioner is only necessary if it is shot. If it doesn't take 15 min to slowly compress it, then its bad. Otherwise, its fine. I have over 220k on two tensioners and they are solid.

don't you mean Pre-Menstrual?

True, I re-used my tensioner as well. Its just another one of those parts you replace for piece of mind.