Newbie ForumBeginner/newbie/general DSM questions. first mods, how to run 10's when you haven't run 12's yet, any tech question that doesn't fit in another tech forum. New Members must limit their tech posts to this forum and sub-forums.
i am really sad but i have to share this with you guys, i was having an over heating issues and some foam in the coolant and pushing coolant etc etc. so after days of checking we came to the fact that its my head gasket.
i bought a brand new gasket kit with bolts ( Graphite Ebay Head gasket) i bought new timing belts , new tensioners new pump new oil new coolant new spark plugs. new Everyhting and i gave them to my mechanic who asked 1200 USD for the job.
when we pulled the head yesterday to check , we found that my HG is in a very good shape and its not blown the only problem that one of the head bolts was loose.
what a waste of money and time. i should have checked the bolts.
advise to all please always check your head bolts if they are tight before doing what i have done. it was a 5 minutes job guys and this 5 minutes cost me 1500 USD.
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Eclipse GST
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Did your mechanic tighten the bolts? If so, it sounds like he owes you another HG job for free, or if you're feeling generous you could buy the parts.
this is what i would like hear 20 psi on the graphite gasket ( THANKS)
as for the bolts its tight now and torqued to 85 . the mechanic also used some kind of sealent just to make sure. he did not put much only little bit.
i wish that i can do a head gasket job, i am a mechanic when it comes to easy stuff , but HG and timing and clutch jobs ( sorry i know my capabilities and i cant)
do you have more comments on the Graphite ebay gasket guys . please dont scare me.
this is what i would like hear 20 psi on the graphite gasket ( THANKS)
as for the bolts its tight now and torqued to 85 . the mechanic also used some kind of sealent just to make sure. he did not put much only little bit.
i wish that i can do a head gasket job, i am a mechanic when it comes to easy stuff , but HG and timing and clutch jobs ( sorry i know my capabilities and i cant)
do you have more comments on the Graphite ebay gasket guys . please dont scare me.
You don't apply any ''sealant'' to the cylinder deck of a 4g63. You're going to run into problems down the road when you try and get more out of the car.
You don't apply any ''sealant'' to the cylinder deck of a 4g63. You're going to run into problems down the road when you try and get more out of the car.
It's actually not a bad idea to use copper coat on the headgasket and it won't hurt a thing.
i did not hear anyhting from you guys on the ebay graphite gasket , and i can see here that you have 2 different opinions on the sealant ??? which one is correct
You didn't waste any money. Even if it was just a loose bolt, you can't just tighten it down and expect it as a reliable fix. OEM headgasket works by being crushed, any lifting that that results in coolant leak will need replacement of the entire thing.
So if he knew one of them was loose and STILL removed the head and didn't call you I would go after him. I am sure Asia has something similar to the BBB here. He should have called and advised you that one of the bolts was loose, could have been the cause, would you like to go ahead with the repairs anyways.
Unfortunate, but I agree with an above poster. You probably could have just tightened the head bolt down, but with air pushing past the cyl to the coolant galley your HG was most likely damaged a bit anyway. I wouldn't have trusted it. I don't think you wasted your money....though you should learn to do your own work on a DSM. I can do a HG job for just the cost of the gasket, a few new razor blades, some RTV, and copper spray. Less than a couple hundred bucks for sure. My car is pretty easy to work on though...if you go back to a stock configuration every time then it's a bit harder. My HG job can be done in 5 hours easily.
2g head studs are known for stretching under boost. Your head gasket could have been fine but still, once you start lifting eventually things are going to get damaged. Once he pulls the head to inspect the headgasket, the labor is already done and all he can do at that point is put a new one in anyway's. If a customer fed me those very symptoms, I'd probably have done the job the same way.
You agreed to what would be an outrageous price in the U.S. But if I were a mechanic and had those symptoms spelled out to me by a customer, I might have came to the same conclusion as he did. The price is outrageous though, I'd expect more like $500 US but I don't know what a dollar buys any more oversees, maybe a chiclet or something
All I know is if I was working on the car and I started removing head bolts and one was loose you can bet I would be advising the customer of it and letting them know about it. Being a service manager you try to look out for the best interest of the customer.
I installed one on a customer's car over a year ago. He was on a budget, and I figured a graphite gasket is a graphite gasket, right?
The piece of shit lasted 165 miles before it blew out between cylinders two and three, filling both with coolant. I did everything by the books- the gasket just straight up failed.
It was one of those Evergreen Automotive gaskets. This is sad because every other seal and gasket in the kit was great- actually more durable than TopLine gaskets I've used which cost more money.
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~Justin~ '92 TSi FWD, '93 TSi AWD, '97 Eclipse GS
Thanks for sharing, Justin. I, too, would have figured a graphite gasket is a graphite gasket (aside from the really small differences like firing ring width, etc...) Although, I've only ever used the Mitsu graphite gasket, I've had nothing but good experiences with them.
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-Paul Volk-
'99 GSX
'91 TSI
I agree, it's only OEM Mitsu or FelPro PermaTorque from here on out. It's not worth my time to use cheap head gaskets that will fail.
The car we're talking about was seriously 100% stock aside from an exhaust and a Small 16G running on wastegate pressure. There's no way the gasket's failure was overboost or detonation-related.
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~Justin~ '92 TSi FWD, '93 TSi AWD, '97 Eclipse GS
If the bolt was loose and you were pushing coolant, it was a good idea just to pull the whole head and replace the gasket, though I may have wanted to spend a bit more money on the gasket if he was going to charge $1200 labor. If the head came loose, coolant and exhaust were being pushed past the gasket. I wouldn't expect it to seal again just by tightening it. It might have sealed, but I wouldn't have felt comfortable trusting it to handle some abuse.
Did he reuse the old 7-bolt head studs? They are torque to yield. They permanently stretch when installed. The next time they are installed, they stretch more. They may work fine, but I'd swap them out for a set of ARPs when ever you can. I did it one bolt at a time and my HG is holding fine. This is something you can easily do on your own.
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Wes - '97 Talon Tsi AWD
Its a crap shoot whether after lifting the head, you still didn't damage the headgasket to where it "might" fail in the future. Only a teardown and inspection would reveal it. The problem I see here is you agreed to a job that was grossly overpriced, and you agreed to it.
^^^^Amen! It takes 2hours for a decent mechanic to pull an dreplace a head, if he has no experience with the T/E/L 4g63 engine bay. If he does: I can replace a head in 30 minutes . I'm not bragging. Just stating that it's stupid easy and really $600 an hour is a bit over priced. Did he put you in a leather lounge chair and help you work out your relationship issues as well
Called them up for S & G's last year, and even the dealer quoted me only $850 for a headgasket replacement.
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Matt
dd '90 GST, Holset H1C
If only the world worked that way. Unfortunately we work in a flat rate world and it calls for 8.9 hours. So by them time you factor in gaskets and fluids it's a little high but not unrealistic.
I installed one on a customer's car over a year ago. He was on a budget, and I figured a graphite gasket is a graphite gasket, right?
The piece of shit lasted 165 miles before it blew out between cylinders two and three, filling both with coolant. I did everything by the books- the gasket just straight up failed.
It was one of those Evergreen Automotive gaskets. This is sad because every other seal and gasket in the kit was great- actually more durable than TopLine gaskets I've used which cost more money.
I run the same kit you describe on my beater dd talon, and I've put 10k miles on it so far. I agree all the gaskets in the kit seemed just as good as others I've used. I bolted the refreshed head down with arp's and copper sprayed the ebay head gasket also. It runs stock boost on a 14b and haven't had a problem yet. I also replaced the radiator with an ebay unit with no ill effects. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've had success with ebay gasket sets, and she has yet to develop a leak.
$1500!!!... dude you gotta "learn&know" your dsm at some point! its what really makes you a dsmer, these dam cars MAKE you the mechanic! willingly or un-willingly so man up, get a chiltons and have at it!
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dude you gotta "learn&know" your dsm at some point! its what really makes you a dsmer, these dam cars MAKE you the mechanic! willingly or un-willingly 
