blown head gasket and cracked driver side header

[jab529]

Hey everyone. First time posting on here but I've been trolling around for a while. I'll start with a little history of our gn. My dads gn has been sitting around in the garage for a while and me and a couple of friends finally decided to take a look at it. Car was running rough and seemed under powered. We could def hear some type of an exhaust leak on the driver side. The car would also die when taking off the oil filler cap. My cousin (who's also works on works, mainly imports) suggested it was probably needing new piston rings possible engine rebuild with the amount of blow by. Fast forward to this weekend and me and another friend take apart the motor. After reading through the site and talking to a Buick expert (found through here as well) our thoughts were right. Blown hg driver side and cracked driver side header. Haven't gone into the internals yet but cylinder walls looked to be fine to me. Attaching some pic to share with those interested
first indication confirming the blown hg

driver side header crack

here she is

p.s. sorry for the long post =)

 

[Pronto]

Nice clear pictures. Might be worth it to do a freshen up at least replacing the timing chain.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Antifreeze in the oil will raise hell w/ the brgs..

 

[jab529]

Antifreeze in the oil will raise hell w/ the brgs..

brgs? When draining the oil and dropping the pan there was mo antifreeze mixed in the oil.

I'm trying to decide what hg to get. The rjc bulletproof hg looks good to me. Same with cometic. Are they necessary for my stock application? Or is the felpro graphite sufficient for my need? Everything is stock and once up and running I'm just looking to replace cold air, down pipe and exhaust.

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[MeanBuicks]

brgs is bearings. The little bit of antifreeze that dripped in during head removal is OK as it hasn't circulated through the engine oil system. Just make sure you clean out the crankcase real good before buttoning it back up. I'd pull the oil pan to make sure you get all the debris out of there and off the oil pickup screen as well.

 

[Texas gn]

I just went through this as well, And from what I understand and learned is that the head gasket can act as fuse that might save your engine. Trust me, you want to blow the Head gasket before it spits the crank out on the ground. In any case I put a set of good felpro in and some new ARP head bolts. I am running 20-23 psi without issue. Btw good time to do what Pronto said too. Good luck!

 

[turbodave231]

Mike is right on target with his comments. All that gasket material ends up in the oil pump pickup and will eventually cause oil starvation. This job is not finished until you drop the oil pan and clean out the gasket material. You can also spray down the valley area with brake clean and catch it with a drain pan.

 

[jab529]

Thanks for all the replies. I've got the motor on an engine stand and it's being torn down. I've already taken the oil pan off and there was fragments from the headgasket in it. After much reading for the last couple days. I've decided to get the GM engine rebuild gasket kit. http://www.nos4gn.com/servlet/the-408/buick-grand-national-nos4gn/Detail

Anyone have any thoughts or personal experience with this kit? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Since the motor is out and apart, I'm planning on replacing what I can all in one shot. All gaskets, timing chain, arp head studs, water pump, anything else you guys would recommend?

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

Valve springs, may want to have the heads freshened up while your on the engine stand.

Chuck

 

[richy rich]

Im gonna do HG as well this week-Whats the Good fel-Pro number?
Or that gasket kit from Highway Stars,or those the fact GM Head gaskets?If so I believe those are good as well.

 

[Reggie West]

Felpro 1000 if they do not have an O ring in the head. O Reilly Auto Parts had them for me in two days. Everyone else was 5 days or more. I dont know about the vendors on here, they may have them in stock. Make sure you get two of them because I ordered a set from Pep Boys and got one.

 

[richy rich]

Yes they are sold in singles-Thanks for the heads up[sorta speak-lol]
Wonder what the fact thickness was?Therse are .039

 

[williamsGN]

I'd go with the stock 9441, unless you have the 14 bolt head the 1000 are made for.

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/which-headgaskets.352707/#post-2826735

 

[richy rich]

Oh ya-I see the 9441.

 

[jab529]

well after further inspection, looks like i have some scoring(sp?) on some of my main bearings. going to bring it to a machine shop and have them check it out and go from there. ill try and get some pics up tonight.

 

[machinegun]

Not sure what your goals are but if just going stock the stock gasket kit is hard to beat.

Also no need for studs but I do recommend the ARP head bolts. Nothing wrong with doing the studs but if you need to pull the heads again doing it in the car is near impossible.

The head gasket kit or the 9144 will work.

Hope this helps

 

[williamsGN]

Not sure about ARP, but stock bolts aren't reusable and ARP may be the same way. Studs are reusable and since they have hex heads, they are easily removable with an allen key. Pretty sure with the heat shield removed over by the heater hoses, I was able to get stock heads on and off without difficulty or removing studs.