maroe624

Well I have several broken bolts from my ex manifold to my heads and just leaks bad and looking to do a head swap . My question is what to use. Do I use the new heads and its pushrods or use my stock pushrods with the new heads? Anything else i need to be concerned about? lifters?

drdave88

iTrader: (3)

The pushrods won't be any different if you're swapping another set of iron heads from anything 85-95 RWD. The 2.8, 3.1 and 3.4 iron heads are all the same, pushrod length are the same. You won't have to touch the lifters since they're in the block.
Have you looked into what a shop would charge you to drill out the broken bolts? The only issue with buying used heads that old is you have no idea what condition they're in. The valve guides may be shot, for example. You'd hate to swap them and find out that you're worse off than before.

Six_Shooter

iTrader: (2)

+1 to what drdave said.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

If it is the passenger side rear bolts, good luck. I've considered unbolting the engine/trans and lifting/rotating to get access to them.

There is one thread on here where a mechanic used a right angle drill to get to them. But this is more of a specialty tool.

RBob.

drdave88

iTrader: (3)

I meant pull the heads to have the broken bolts drilled out, since he mentioned they were leaking already. Yeah, that would be a truck load of no fun if he did them in the car.

maroe624

I wont bother with the broken bolts in the head as the manifold is welded to the heads Well I was thinking of getting the heads off a fourth gen 3.4.. So your saying i can use the new head's push rods right? All i would have to
do then is set the valvelash right? Then just bolt everything back up. Anything else i need to be concerned about? Does anybody know the best gasket for it not to leak again.? Upgrade bolts and studs??

drdave88

iTrader: (3)

Yep, they're all identical.

W.E.G.

I'm in the same situation with my exhaust manifold bolts.

I'm looking very hard at the A.R.I. place in Missouri. They appear to specialize in 60* V6 Chevy motors.
http://www.engine-parts.com/GMV6/gmv6heads.html
From the looks of it, they are building a turnkey head replacement for our cars. Wish I could say I have first-hand experience with them. I do not.

Of course, you can spend a lot less on rebuilt heads if you get them from someplace like Autozone, but who knows really what you're going to get with that deal.

Or you can do all the machine work yourself in the garage.

By the time I've invested my time and labor into a project like this, I'd like to think I don't need to be real worried about the quality of the part I'm installing. Doing the job one time is sort of fun. Re-doing because I installed a questionable part on the first try in order to save a couple hundred bucks?... I don't even want to think about it.

Six_Shooter

iTrader: (2)

According to everything I've read about ARI, you need to have the same worries about them too.

W.E.G.

Links to A.R.I. Reports?

I've yet to find even one report on their products

Six_Shooter

iTrader: (2)

I don't save links to reviews of places I'll never buy from.

But look on V6Z24.com, S10forum.com, 60degreev6.com, other forums and even some old threads here have said usually from completely terrible, to it works, but not as well as it was supposed to.