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anyone know about how much it would cost to repair a head gasket on a 1970 olds 350?
and should I have both heads done ? and what price if I took the heads off ?
I can't quote you a price from here, but any decent indy shop would be glad to take this repair on. You definitely want to do both heads, you want to take the heads off and have them pressure tested and checked for flatness/trued/etc. While the heads are off would be the time to look at a valve grind if indicated and to definitely put on new valve stem seals.
Make sure you are getting Fel-Pro or similar premium quality gaskets.
This is not beyond the ability of a middling level DIY if you have a place to work.
If you have a lot of coolant in the oil, you may want to do a couple of very short turn-around oil changes when you get it back together.
Offhand probably average normal repair costs for this would be $750 +/- $250.
The cheapest bid is not necessarily the best bid.
If you have the extra cash, you would not have any additional down time having the carb rebuilt while it's off the car. If it's doing fine and/or was recently rebuilt, fine, leave it alone.
IIRC the distributor will be out of the car too, it could go to a specialist for some love without additional downtime as well.
Good luck. Like I said if you have a place to work, DIY. You can get an experienced DIY buddy to help you over the hard spots. Clean all the gasket material off the block, be very meticulous, don't drop any into the oil passages. You can do this as well as the highest qualified mechanic on earth, and you will put more effort into it than all but the most integrity-soaked ones.
great I know I can take the heads and man. off but from there I was lost. so maybe It will be a spring project. doing both sides seemed the best since it will be torn apart anyway. will the machine shop let me know what is needed as far as valve grind. at 41 years I think it should get a total make over
do it right the first time....
Well, do your research and find a good machine shop that does this type of old engine. Hard to say if it will need a valve grind or not, depends on how the car was used, the 41 years is not much one way or the other. A good shop will tell you how good or bad the heads look, it's really up to you if you want to do a valve grind, one thing is that GM went to hardened valve seats IIRC in '71, so you may want to think about putting in inserts.
Post up where you are locally and find a good machine shop. Ask around, talk to the local old car fraternity.
I can't stress enough that you have to let the shop know what you want to do. Sometimes shops decide on their own that you want to get off the hook as cheaply as possible with old iron like this (which may be true or may not) so tell them how good you want to do the job, what your budget is. For example say the spec warpage on this head is .012. OK if they were .010, you would probably go on and mill them, right? What if it was .008, though? Any time you are rebuilding an engine there will be some parts that are clearly in the "grey zone", also you need to have an appreciation for what kind of experience people are having with these heads.
A final thought - there is a school of thought that says replace the exhaust valves pre-emptively when-ever the heads come off. This is mostly people who run old Detroit iron and run it hard.
There are considerably better valves out there in the aftermarket than what came in this engine. Stock valves are cheap, you can get whatever you want, on up to Inconel exhaust valves (well I know you can get these for SBC engines, maybe you can for Buick and maybe not).
The art of the deal is to spend enough money to get what you want in terms of performance and longevity without spending a lot more on stuff you won't get any real benefit from.
Yeah, it would be totally nuts to do just one head - 90% of the work is taking the intake, etc off and out of the way, that and if one gasket has failed, the other one is probably not that much better in condition.
If you are a mechanic I would remove both heads and have a machine shop redo them and then replace the gaskets and install them back. If you arent an experienced mechanic call around and get some estimates and referrals..Cost can vary . There may be other things that may need replacing such as belts.water pump.hoses etc...this is extra
Well it will cost you round about $125 to repair a head gasket...
If you did it yourself.. Otherwise expect a $400 bill from your mechanic
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