What to do if head gasket blows?

[flip33]

I love my 1999 Aurora.  Put plenty of money in it over the years.  Running great now.  I am aware of the Northstar engine issue, and I wonder what the best thing to do if my engine goes south.  My mechanic says it is toast if it overheats.  Have read about the stud replacement option.

This car is coming up on 190,000 miles.  Looks good inside and out.  Been driving other cars to spare miles on it.

A)  replace engine with another
B)  have stud work done
C)  part out car as junk
D)  other?

[RCA1186]

If you really like it I'd either drop in a studded 4.6 or stud your engine with the blown head gaskets. Right now I'd just focus on the cooling system being in good condition mechanically and change your coolant every couple of years.

[XJSman89]

I wouldn't really plan on a head gasket blowing or anything. I was told by the dealer 7 years ago that mine could go at any time. Guess what? It's still going. *knocks on wood*

Just keep the coolant fresh like Rob said and don't let it get too hot. You'll be fine. If it gets hot you can turn on the AC (even in the winter) and it will kick on the secondary fan to help things out. The fan kicks on at a certain temp anyway (I think its 220?) but that's just one way to turn it on early if you're worried.

The Aurora doesn't overheat any more than any other car, really. It's just that the motor needs to be studded when it happens, that's why it's a bigger deal. I've only heard of it a handful of times on the boards, truthfully. If you just want to refresh the powerplant you can rebuild (and stud) a 4.6 like Rob suggested and swap it but I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it happens.

[rorafan]

Yep, don't worry about it unless you have a reason to. This infamous headgasket issue was the main reason I didn't buy one of these cars sooner -- that was a dumb move. I was cheating myself out of owning a great car!

As the others mentioned, keep the coolant fresh and just enjoy the car. I'd also suggest adding the sealant pellets GM recommends but not necessarily to prevent the head gasket from going. They can help with nuisance leaks as these cars get older and in doing so, help maintain the proper coolant level and pressure in the system. Do a search here or read this thread: aurorah.proboards.com/thread/22943

My local GM dealers have these hanging on a hook in the parts dept. for whopping $5.

[flip33]

Thanks folks for the great information put into perspective. Just had the radiator replaced because of leaking coolant. I was afraid it was serious, but the radiator itself had bad inlet connections. After that, I have had no leaks. I did note that the new radiator caused the engine to register about 220 deg vs. the previous 200 deg temp. No big deal of course.
Thanks again for your pertinent and valuable responses.
(BTW, the first generation Aurora sure is a good looking beast!)

[Randy T.]

When mine blow up(happens all the time), I use salvage yard 4.6s, you have better chances if you use an engine from a wrecked '95-early'96 Cadillac, I heard the earlier ones are better, no need to use studs.

[skizo]

Splain to me please, this studding thing ... what's holding the heads on now? Hope and a prayer?

[flip33]

From what I understand, if you pull the heads off to replace the gaskets, the bolt threads will strip out and not work again. There are a couple options of replacing the bolt threads with studs that will hold the bolts and head on.

Thanks Randy for the 95-96 Cadi recommendation!

[wfooshee]

"Studding" is replacing the head bolts with studs, and the heads are torqued with nuts on the studs instead of bolts into the block. The aluminum is so soft that some of it comes out with the bolts when you remove the heads. the result is that both thread sets are hard steel instead of steel on aluminum.

Steel bolts into aluminum is not necessarily a bad thing, it happens all the time, but somehow this block is made of less-than-stellar material.