Had to do the head gasket on a 77 honda civic once, had to put the head in my backpack and sprint across town to catch a bus to the machinist as i was on borrowed time with rented tools. Fun

 

so my 99 is all tore apart today! head is pulled out and off to the machine shop...
Mechanic says major cleaning is needed on some stuff, cant remember what he said needed it, but i definitely had one side shot and the other side 3/4 of the way on its way out... will be getting a new serpentine belt and fresh oil after he puts it all back together.... thats my update.

 

Keep us posted.

 

How about the other needed parts, plug wires, t/stat/ 2 idler pullies and an tension pulley along with the up-dated upper hose set and repositioned bleeder screw.

 

Wires I've done myself recently, along with new plugs, I'm running Magnecor 8mm's and Bosch platinum +4's, new thermostat and updated upper hose set w/ the bleeder screw at the "T", and wasnt aware of idler pullies and tension pulleys needing a replacement, but I'll ask my Mechanic to check them out. Spike I'll definitely keep the updates coming...

 

It is very common to have the 3 pullies fail, so since it is apart ought to just change them out.
So, were your heads warped or did you luck out?

 

wont know about the condition of the heads until they come back from the machine shop, they just got there this morning. Mike, about the pullies, mechanic says he checked them out, they rolled smoothly and did not squeek. as they are sealed bearings, ive decided if theyre fine im not going to worry about them... i had to take out a loan just to pay for this head gasket issue. times are hard.

 

It just seems odd that a good mechanic has to ask the vehicle owner what material the heads are made of. I was at a muffler shop 2 weeks ago and the owner was telling me all about the Disco engines and how Rover bought the engine design from Buick and blah, blah, blah. He doesn't even work on engines....

 

hes worked on old rovers that had steel heads aluminum blocks and told me that the different metals expand and contract differently, which i understand being an ironworker... but again, he asked me so that the machine shop could give him an estimate so i could get the scratch up for this work.

 

So I just got the call from my Mechanic and good news, she's all put back together and runnin' perfectly! no fault codes, 3 amigos are on but im not concerned with them, just that its finally done up and done right this time.... apparently before i owned it a head gasket job was attempted and done poorly, going off what he tells me that bolts were loose/missing, etc, etc. WooHoo! goin to pick her up tomorrow, cant wait!