Blown Head Gasket

[FFW]

Well after installing a new water pump, radiator, and thermostat it still came down with bad news

oil cap.


and white blueish smoke coming tailpipe and bubbles from radiator also should of been sign as well.

Now at least i have the car where i can work on it. This will actually be first time working something major...so is replacing head would be easy or hard task? (only experience is doing breaks, waterpumps and tuneups.) Also i found this head in ebay dont know if it is a good deal or not..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...3AIT&viewitem=

[ohsoslow]

seems like a good deal to me. im sure you couldnt get your head cleaned, magnafluxed, and milled for that price

[econoaddict]

seems like a good deal to me. im sure you couldnt get your head cleaned, magnafluxed, and milled for that price

I would call around and price out cold tanking, magnafluxing and resurfacing.
You can easily beat that price around here.

Last head we had done was an escort, magnaflux, cold tank, 2 valves and seats, resurfaced come out right at $200

[Unco]

as for the easy/hard question. it is relatively straight forward and i'm sure you'll get plenty of help around here if you have any questions. the main thing is to make sure you have a good torque wrench when you put the head back on.

[festivaWES]

i bought a b6 8 vavle head rebuilt for 165 no core charge also.

[ejp2fast]

yeah, don't get that head on ebay unless your old one is in VERY TERRIBLE shape... depends the shop $100-160 for a shop to check it out doing the whole clean up and test/ reseat valves/ install cam.
Taking off the head isn't really that big of a deal... just take your time and check and re-check.. best advice would be to have a torque wrench and torque to spec.

[skeeters_keeper]

When I do a head I take it to a local guy, its $25 for a 4 cyl alum head to be decked and cleaned. But I take him the head with the cam and all removed, and he can usually do it while I wait.
I would suggest replacing the valve stem seals and cleaning the valves and everything real good while the head is out. A head gasket on a festiva is one of the easiest you can do, just follow through the manual and take your time. There are a lot of pics of me doing the B6 (almost identical to the B3) rebuild in my B6 swap writeup in the "others articles" forum, if you want to see some pics before you go and tear things apart!

[jglutz]

Last year I had my head cleaned, magnafluxed, valves ground and seats lapped for $40.
We have a local guy who does 2 valve heads for $10 a cylinder....$17 for 4 valve....$2 per core plug....the price includes changing valve stem seals if you bring them in.

I did not mill the head....No way I'm cutting metal if I don't need to.

[FFW]

Thanks for the info guys! Will check some your articles skeeter. Also how long does process takes of removing head and etc.?

[ejp2fast]

depends, but allow plenty of time as snags like to pop up.

[geezerstiva]

and snags there will be. :lol:

[FFW]

One shop told me... if it has a crack on it it wouldn't be able to repair it because it was aluminum and can only magnaflux on iron heads. Is this true? are festiva heads made out of iron or aluminum?

[festivaWES]

aluminum.