Blown Head gasket on wife's 96 lumina 3.1

[EMT_156]

My wife's Lumina blew the front head gasket. How hard of a job is it to pull apart the top end of the motor apart. Pulling apart engines isn't new to me I've just never gotten that deep into the 3.1. Also is there anything I should upgrade while I'm in there.

Thanks for any info

[ricklovin93]

Nothing to difficult i suggest you change the intake manifold gasket with the fel-pro metal gaskets, cause gm fucked us over with the plastic intake gasket, if i was you id change both head gaskets, it only makes sense.

[EMT_156]

Yeah I'm not messing around. Both heads are coming off and going to the machine shop to have them go through them. Can I get away with regular coolant instead of the Dex-cool?

[ricklovin93]

Yea now most coolant is rated for just about every cooling system just look at the back of the container too see if theres any exceptions

[RobertISaar]

yeah, use whatever coolant you want, just make sure to flush EVERYTHING before adding in the new stuff. there's theories about them not playing nice together.

another fix i would suggest(while in that deep) is the oil pump drive seal.

[ricklovin93]

just a question how many miles are on that engine?

[EMT_156]

103k

[ricklovin93]

really whats the wife doin drag racing up down main street haha my cutlass has almost 150 and everythings holding together engine wise, knock on wood

[EMT_156]

No I was the one that was driving the car when it happened. It own 3 other w-bodies with the 3.1 and never had a problem. Sold the 2 Luminas with close to 200k and the grand am blew the head gasket with well over 200k on it. I figured this one would be the same.

[AMP]

Not a hard job did one on my old 98 Lumina

[AMP]

really whats the wife doin drag racing up down main street haha my cutlass has almost 150 and everythings holding together engine wise, knock on wood
My old Lumina was similar it was owned by an older woman, and it blew a headgasket

[EMT_156]

Yeah we bought this car from the original owner who was in her 80's. It was her husbands car and he had died and she had no use for it. It had 83k on it when we bought it.

[EMT_156]

Been working on the car all week and I'm hoping to have it done and fired off tomorrow. I would have been done sooner but Napa had too order the sever duty head gaskets and they didn't come in till Thursday. It did give me some time to really clean up the engine bay.