Today something happened that made me put a bunch of other clues together.
It started with the "exhaust leak". I thought that's what it was, anyway. But now it looks like something else. Next, lately under the hood it is really really hot after running, I can't touch the fill tube cap or it will burn my hand. When running there is some light "steam/smoke" coming from around the engine, not able to pinpoint it. Also smell of exhaust in car when idling, it was doing it before (bad valve cover gasket) but this is different smell, and it came on 2 weeks ago. There is a CEL for catalyst efficiency, and my shop teacher told me that bad headgaskets can cause that. Then, last week the low coolant light came on. For some reason I thought it was the washer fluid light, but then I filled it, and it was still on. Checked the manual and sure enough, low coolant light. Thankfully the gasket is only $18 and a fairly easy job on the 2.2L OHV from what I've heard. Does this truly seem like a headgasket, and fairly easy job, no? 1997 Cavalier, 2.2L OHV, 134,800 miles.
it sounds like your cat was plugging up and needed well still needs "punched out" or replaced all that added backpressure puts some serious stress on the head, valves, intake mani, exhaust mani, basically everything is affected, yeah I think you knocked your headgasket out, I did the same on a z24 all i had to do was knock all the ceramic out of the converter and I woulda saved the head, and yes the 2.2l is very simple to replace the headgasket in. Best fo luck-stick with fel-pro gaskets they haven't let me down yet
While I have the head off, how hard is it to get the head machined and valves ground? How much would I be looking at to get that done?
when i replaced my gasket my head wasnt warped so i didnt bother getting it milled or machined so you may wanna look into that first if you dont wanna spend alot of unnecessary $$
Nick wrote:Thankfully the gasket is only $18 and a fairly easy job on the 2.2L OHV from what I've heard. Does this truly seem like a headgasket, and fairly easy job, no? 1997 Cavalier, 2.2L OHV, 134,800 miles.
you WILL need more than just the head gasket. it's called a head gasket set. also, you MUST replace the head bolts, as they are torque to yield.
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Yup. Going to get the set. Head gasket, intake mani gasket, etc etc.
