redtegrs91

I got my legend for free from a friend of mine who needed to make room for his new 2006 mercedes. Anyways, after driving it for a few days with it overheating a few times, i came to the conclusion that the head gasket was blown.
I asked my mechanic friends if they would help me but they said it was too much work,or they had no time, so i decided to do it myself. they thought o was crazy do do it myself outside my apt lol. I dont have a garage and i live in an apt complex so this was a challenge. I got permission from the apt staff to do it and they agreed as long as i dont leave parts laying around. After 2 weeks of slowly messing with it, i finally got everything apart to find both gaskets blown. Replaced both of them and got the car running today. It runs great minus a small leak from the upper radiator hose which i will fix tomorrow.

I am so happy because i though i would never be able to do it, but i did and even surprised my mechanic friends. Funny thing was, one hour before i finished putting everything back together, the apt secretary came to me and said that i was no longer allowed to work on my car for liability reasons. I was glad i was almost done when they gave me the news.

Anyways, if someone needs to do a BHG, its not tough at all. You just have to be organized and have patience. Even someone with very little experience like me can do it. And most of all, many thanks to Iceman's DIY which helped me throughout the whole job.

 

Voice Of Reason

Wow, and I thought I was getting a deal. Free? cool. The worst PITA headgasket job I did was on a '91 Toyota Camry with the 2.5 V6. It took me a few days excluding machine work.

rome405

how muc did the kit cost? and how much did it cost to get your heads done at a machine shop?

Jetdoc

Of course anyone who has actually done it knows this is not true.

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People are often reluctant to pay for good advice but rarely follow free advice.

redtegrs91

lol ok. I take my words back. I guess what i meant to say was that it wasnt as tough as i thought it would be.

redtegrs91

I had a mechanic friend check the heads and they were straight. He machined them for me so it was free but i think most machine shops do both for like $100.

I did not buy the whole kit, just the head gasket and valve covers. it came out to $90 dollars for those.

DatStyle

wow, I just got mine quoted for the head gasket job and here's what I got:
$600 for the kit
$1000 labor
Appx $300 for all hoses
Appx $400 for each head to check and machine if needed so ($800)
Appx total is around $2700 plus taxes.

I want to do the job myself but I keep having doubts what if i screw it up, or miss something; is it worth it; not to mention the only resources I have are Haynes manual and the thread from the forums (which by the way is great).
Any suggestions and/or motivation would help.
Thanks

PS: What resources did you use "redtegrs91"?

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"Once A Legend, Always A Legend"
Lots of us here spend more time fixing our Legends than we do driving them, but those few moments that we spend with our babies are worth it all.

mmmchickenboy

if you end up doing it yourself, buy the helms manual. youll be saving $1000 just in labor, so why not spend $80-100 for the good book?

redtegrs91

All i used as far as resources was the DIY by iceman. As far as screwing up, it will happen only if you are doing the job unorganized or with an absent mind.

If you do it yourself, you will save the labour plus a lot of money by buying the parts yourself.

The best motivation is actually starting the job. each part you take off is a motivation to do the next.

Make sure you keep at least $250-300 dollars extra in your budget for the knock sensors. I dont know about others, but even though i was very gentle when taking the knock sensors off, they broke. If you cannot find someone to machine the heads for cheap, it is better off you get them done at a machine shop even if you have to pay extra. Its not worth putting everything back then blowing the Head gasket again because they were not machined.

Good luck if you do plan on doing it yourself. If you have any questions you can pm me and i can help you with whatever i know.

DatStyle

Thanks a lot redtegrs91, I have made up my mind and I think I'm gonna go ahead and do the job myself. I'm sure there are a lot of helpful people on here who'se input I can borrow if any problems occurr and you've already offered too so I have all the right reason to go ahead and do it.
Thanks Again

__________________
http://pics-34.hi5.com/userpics/134/...796134.img.jpg
"Once A Legend, Always A Legend"
Lots of us here spend more time fixing our Legends than we do driving them, but those few moments that we spend with our babies are worth it all.

Voice Of Reason

WOW!!! I see things are MUCH more expensive there. There are tons of machine shops near here, but the one I take heads to checks to see if they're warped, and if so it's 30 each to machine them. Heck, a full valve job for both would be less than 150. I checked on a head gasket kit and the felpro one was less around 270ish. I am glad I found a crack in the plastic on the top of the radiator since I did not really want to do a head gasket job, but I have done plenty of them before, so I would not be afraid to tackle this one. I read the HG DIY, and it seemed to be a VERY good one to follow.

DatStyle

Yep, that's Toronto for you... "not cheap"
Well, I've decided to go ahead with the job myself and use Iceman's DIY for it along with the Haynes manual and the Helms manual which I've just ordered. Once I'm at the point to check them, I'll take a look to see which shop can check and if needed machine the heads for me at the best price.
Thanks to all of you guys for your help, I'm sure I'll be on here bugging you guys with questions as I go.

__________________
http://pics-34.hi5.com/userpics/134/...796134.img.jpg
"Once A Legend, Always A Legend"
Lots of us here spend more time fixing our Legends than we do driving them, but those few moments that we spend with our babies are worth it all.

swift

I got ripped off on my head work...can you guess ...jsut guess..

$600!! they wanted $700, but myself and my mechanic threatened him. And my mechanic that i later worked for....charged half his labor and i did reassembly somewhat..

anyways....should be $300 no more. just for shaving, cleaning..etc..