ARGH!!! The headgasket blew on my Sunbird!!! I was on the way in from work, and less than an 8th of a mile from my house white smoke started pouring from the exhaust. Blown head gasket.
Ohh well, stuff like that sometimes happens. I had one of those failsafe thermostats from Autozone (cost 18 dollars too) that is supposed to work great, but unfortunately it jammed shut. I got the head off and seen that it blew into cylinder #3. Luckily the head does not appear to be cracked, but I do have it at a machine shop that does only heads. It's going to cost 120 for a valve job, milling, cleaning, and having it completely checked out for cracks. That includes the valve seals and everything, so I don't think that's a bad price at all. I can get the headgasket set with head bolts for 68 at Autozone, and while I have it off I am going to change all the hoses hidden back there while they are easy to get to.
Yup, same thing happened to me a couple weeks ago...but it was going for a bit, just didnt know it...the occasional smoke....Im just swapping in a 3.1 next week!
I work at Autozone, told my manager about what happened to you, he says to come back and at the very least Failsafe will warranty the thermostat and give you a new one! They take care of their parts and customers!
Cool, I'll try that. I would really like it if they paid for the parts though.
They'll pay for the thermostat
The head cracked. Guess what kind of thermostat I am not putting in again.
I don't know, but if a part like that stated "failsafe" and it actually failed I would see about if that company would pay to work on the motor itself. to me thats fails advertising.
secondly if a thermostate was pluged like that would you see your temp gauge or would your water light come on???
**changes are here**
The brand name is Failsafe
I bought a head from a place that sells them on ebay. I completely rebuilt head with a 1 year warranty, head gasket set, and new head bolts only cost 234 through this place, and that includes shipping to me and the shipping for the core head back to them. The place that does them locally wanted 280 for a head, and that was without the gasket set and head bolts, so I would say I got an awesome deal.
sounds farmiliar. my biddy blew the headgasket on his 2.0t on monday. pulled it apart, squeezed it in 2 places, cracked the head in 5 places. reman head, gm head gasket, new rod bearings (it squeezed em out .004", wich is huge), timing belt and water pump, and a bunch of other things that needed doing. should be running tomorow sometime.
