I-5 metal head gaskets, bolts, + hardened coolant gunk???

[Ameer Antar]

Well I have 2 motors w/ blown gaskets, my only experiences. But I have to
say the '85 came like that, so who know's what the PO did, and the other
was an overheated motor (classic heater hose scenario). I usually take good
care of maintenance stuff, so if yall think I'll do fine w/ the stock
gasket, I'll forget about the metal one. Plus the metal one is priced at
$160 at the dealer, so I'd love to save the cash for other stuff. How much
is the standard one ballpark? What's that about not re-using the stock head
bolts? They look pretty beefy to me, I was thinking of reusing 'em cuz I
thought the only bolts that have to be replaced are con-rod bolts. Should
the head bolts be replaced w/ new ones, or is there a better alternative?
How critical is this?

Also after opening the '85 motor, I found a lot of hardened coolant?? in
the water passages in the head and block. Anyone heard of this? I wonder if
this had anything to do w/ the gasket... I also found some flakes and gunk
in the coolant fitting on the turbo. Other than cleaning this out, should I
worry at all about this?

Big thanks everyone for your help guiding me through this stuff!

-ameer


At 06:20 PM 7/25/2002, you wrote:

>Message: 9
>Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 13:03:24 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Jim Green <jeg1976 at yahoo.com>
>Subject: Re: I-5 metal head gaskets
>To: Michael Gough <mdg3369 at mac.com>, Quattro at audifans.com
>
>
>--- Michael Gough <mdg3369 at mac.com> wrote:
> > > The stock ones are so prone to failure, there
> > should really be better
> > > alternatives. A
> >
> > Are they really? I haven't ever had any trouble.
> > Have you? I've known about
> > the exhaust manifolds being prone to failure ;) but
> > haven't heard head
> > gaskets brought up more than once or twice.
> > Mike
>
>Yea, and that was probably all me.  The key is not to
>re-use the stock head bolts.
>
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