so my car started overheating 2 days ago
pulled over at the nearest gas station
checked the antifreeze in the reservour
touched the top part of the hose, felt hot
touched the bottom part of the hose connected to engine, felt kinda cool

replaced the thermostat the next day... and the gauge cluster still displays engine overheating, after a couple of minutes of idling

...was advised by mechanic that i may need the head gasket replaced, which is not very cheap!
unless someone out here in the 5 boro's can help me out and take on this side job?

other than that, its a perfect opportunity to do a ls-vtec without spending too much?
although my car IS an automatic, with dc 4-2-1 sports header, apexi world sport 2 muffler, and aem short ram intake

how much do vtec heads go for?
should i go the vtec route, vs. just getting the head gasket replaced?

i dont plan on going too crazy for speed
i figure i'll just leave the auto tranny on speed 3, and towards 500rpm before red-lining, release gas, and press that 'S' button to shift to 4th gear


hit me up on aim: abz117
if anyone can help out
or have a reliable vtec head for sale, with everything that'll bolt and have it running

 

how did he come to the conclusion that the head gasket needed to be replaced? are you leaking coolant? is there coolant in the engine oil? or vice versa? is there white smoking pouring out of the exhaust?

 

there is no white smoke pouring out of the exhaust


i dont think its leaking any coolant since its full/ topped-off when engine bay is cool enough for me to check

how would i go about checking to see if any coolant is in the engine bay?

 

well typically when your head gasket goes bad you come up with any # of these following problems


coolant leaks into the oil (visible as a milky colored engine oil)
oil leaks into the coolant (brown sludge in the coolant)
coolant leaks into the combustion chamber (visible as white smoke pouring out the exhaust as the antifreeze gets burned)
constantly having to refill your engine coolant
visible leaks around the sides of the gasket around your engine


now, that being said, if your driving and your not loosing coolant, id be hard pressed to say it was your head gasket. What are the EXACT conditions on how it overheats, 10,20,30 minutes of idling and then it goes past the normal range on the tstat? Its very well possible you have a bad water pump or your radiator fan isnt turning on, OR its not spinning at a fast enough speed to cool the engine down. Ive encountered all of these problems before on any # of cars.

 

if you have a shop do the head gasket, you will spend alot of money. if you do an ls/vtec, you will spend about that much money on just the head. they average 350-450 depending on which head it is. double that price if you are having the shop install that. and a golden eagle ls/vtec kit is 350 bucks. or you can do it alot cheaper. go in the faq and read up on ls/vtec.