I've been having issues with a coolant leak. I changed the oil 10 days/107 miles ago, with no issues noted. Car has heat cycled several times from 210*-260* a few times, but never really hung out above 210* for very long. This morning, I noticed the Low Oil light was on, by the time I got to the dealership to diagnose the coolant leak, the car had stalled a couple of times, and would not stay running long enough to get up into the service drive.

I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some details. My question: How likely is it that I warped the heads or cracked something? Should replacing head gaskets take care of everything?

Price lists so far:

~$2500 for head gasket replacing
~$3500 to replace both heads
~$3800 for 81,000 mile used engine with 90 day/unlimited mileage warranty
~$5800 for brand new GM 3800 long block installed by GM

There goes my day, darn it!

at price. You could get new car for that! Maybe do it yourself will much better. I'm sure some guy(s) in Texas will help.

if your thinking of getting the new engine, get a race ready one from zzp for like a grand less

thats what i wanna do some day

That blows.

I highly doubt the heads are cracked. Chances are they will need some milling. It would be a perfect oportunity to hook up with Pops and have em ported and polished.

The heads are probably warped.

You have two cars now, get hooked up with some local guys and learn to fix this thing. It's going to save you thousands of dollars.

Did you do something when you were replacing gaskets or something?
What happened?

I havent done any real work to this car at all. 3 months ago Chevy had given this car a clean bill of health, and there was no coolant in the oil 10 days ago.

Our heads are known to warp? Has our heads or blocks been known to crack?

If I had the time to work on both cars, I would. Believe me, I would. I'm having issues trying to schedule when to do my LIM on the GP.

OOps, my bad. I read over it quickly, I thought I saw RWD in the title. I thought was the gp.
I believer the heads do get some cracks, but not all the way through, from some of the threads I have read.

The heads probably warped when it overheated.

The heads crack around the valves, I bet if every one of us pulled our heads off, 8 out of 10 would be cracked around the valves. It's nothing to worry about.

pay for my trip down and ill be more than happy to lend a helping hand

I've got a set of L36 heads you can have if it comes down to it. All I'd need is shipping.

how much for shipping?

soooo, I told them to check to see where my coolant leak was coming from. So far they added about 3 gallons of coolant, and as fast as they added coolant, the crankcase kept filling and is now 3 gallons over-full.

Now I hafta figure out if I want the used engine, with unknown maintenance history; or a really expensive brand new engine that should last 200,000 miles.

My wife is considering used, but leaning towards new. I am completly torn between the two.

There goes the idea of layin down a good chunk on my wife's student loans. darn it.

I would grab a used one.

x2