Blew my engine, what to do... (Z24)

They are tough little engines, my 86' lasted a little over 300,000 you may be surprised to find that you only need a new head gasket. also oil and filter due to contamination.

Olliec remove bond to reply

Agree that it is worth trying to get by with a new head gasket, oil, filter, etc. But, make sure the head is flat and true before proceeding down that road.

If the engine is truly shot it makes little economic sense to replace or rebuild the engine. When all is said and done a replacement truck would cost little more.

OTOH, if you would like to keep the vehicle forever for sentimental reasons it is well worth the expense, IMO.

Good luck with simply replacing the head gasket, etc.

Get a used engine installed..

Waste of time if it got this hot.

Is that a "guess" or did someone actually quote you this price? That sounds awful low for a "reman engine" installed.

Do you plan on selling it?

in article snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Steve T at snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 3/4/05 5:45 PM:

My fear there is that pretty much any Z24 engine is going to be about 20 years old... that's a pretty old used engine!

Damn! I was just getting excited at the idea of trying a new head gasket only, as suggested by a couple other replies. I may pull the head just out of curiousity to see how bad it really is...

It was $1450 for the engine with a 3-yr warranty and $650 for the install...

No... I actually kind of need a pickup (I live in the woods) but it does not need to be a NICE pickup. The last long trip that truck took was 2 years ago to elk camp. Now it's just for getting gravel, going to the dump, getting 2x6's, etc.

-jeff

Yet yours was fine till you overheated it wasn't it?

You can always try it. My experience has been once these heads get hot enough to warp, you've anealed the aluminum and they will continue to blow gaskets. I know I wouldn't spend very much fixing it. Throw a gasket on it and if it doesn't work out, you don't have a ton of money in it. I would NOT spend hundreds rebuilding a core that was overheated like this.

Then what it would sell for isn't even an issue was my point.