Blown Head Gasket - L67
 

This could be an inaccurate diagnosis but it is what an ASE certified mechanic with 35 years of experience told me. Shocking enough as it is, I have never heard of this happening to a L67 before but I guess anything is possible when the car constantly was overheating.

One thing I could not really get a clear answer out of him is how coolant could be flowing in Cylinder 1, 3 and 5 at once. He tried to explain it to me but I did not quite understand.

Obviously something is wrong with it as it blows out AN AMAZING ammount of steam when you fire it up.

Of course he gave me an estimate for an engine rebuild which was a little bit much.

So I guess I am stuck with a delima, Get and engine from another bonneville, lucky for me there is not one Series One L67 in any junkyard anywhere in Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming. Not one. That means I will need to have a motor shipped here since it is probably not worth it to rebuild the existing motor. The price I am looking at for a junk yard motor is around 1300 just for the motor to be shipped here, in addition to having it installed.

What is the best thing to do at this point?

I can sell the car for maybe 600 bucks and forget about the losses, or I can spend upwards of $2000 putting a used junkyard motor in the car. 154K on it right now, needs brakes, tires, and AC repaired... Not too sure what the best bet is right now


More importantly can someone actually explain how a bad headgasket can let coolant into all of the front cylinders?

From what I know, the head gasket leak seems pretty severe. I would say overtime it "worked its way around the cyl head. "Usually" the cure would to just check the head for cracks, plane it, then replace with a new gasket, but it may be more to it. I had an 88 2.0 turbo sunbird that had a cracked head, A new cyl head and a gasket later I was back on the road.

It's really not that hard of a job to pull the heads off and do the gaskets.
One step at a time. Your labour is much cheaper than a mechanics so it's well worth your time.
What have you got to lose. The parts are cheap.

I would say it is definitely worth tearing into it to find out what you are dealing with. Head gasket failures are really rare on these motors. Failed intake is much more likely. I would be concerned about damage from the overheating - you need to check the bearings to make sure they are OK. You could buy an engine hoist for $200, an engine stand for $100, pull it out and tear it down. It is really easy to work on an engine on a stand. Anyway, you might find you can repair the engine for less than a grand.

What you say bill is what I heard from my dads friend who has been pushing the limits on Cummins motors in the the rams, he is the kinda guy that dynos many times a year...well this guy actually was the guy that told me to buy my first 3800 car and after speaking with him about this he said it could be one of a few things, head gasket, cracked head or bad intake gaskets. The vibe I got that the bearings would probably be toast.

Head gaskets do fail on these motors, it's realy not THAT uncommon...especially with high miles. BUT, for all three front cylinders to take in coolant???? That sounds more like a bad intake.

I'd give you $600 as is but it would cost me another $600 to get it to MN.

How much is it to get a uhaul car dolley for a few days??? I may pick it up and drag it back myself....

Wait...Ma and Pops will SHIT if I get another car....

Oh well gotta push some limits somewhere. LOL

$1300 is a lot. I got a 93 Engine I'd let go fora lot less than that, 177k would need a good TB cleaning and valve cover gaskets. I think the AC actually works on the car as well, so I could add that in there too for a small amount. That would leave you with shipping it from here, which might be costly.

93 I don't think would go in there too easy....

The bottom ends are essentially the same on both cars. Not a whole lot changed there year to year.