RE: Milano Head Gasket Replacemant

["Jason Ball" <alfamale@domain.elided>]

Scott Said:
>I was changing a valve cover gasket on my '87 Platinum and noticed that the
>head gasket was leaking oil.  No oil in the coolant or visa-versa though,
>(for now) but I'm not going to wait around for it to get worse.
>
>In any event, the shop I usually take it to wants $2,000 to do the job.
>This seems extremely high to me. Can any of the Alfa gurus out there speak
>to this?  I'm a bit taken aback by it, and am curious to find out if this is
>a fair price for this job..
>
>Having commited to doing the job myself, is there any tricks or pitfalls I
>need to watch out for that aren't covered in the manual?
>I've replaced the head gasket on a few Spiders as well as some other cars,
>so I've probably got the basics covered.

$2000 sounds quite high for just the head gasket.  I would hope that price
would include a valve job and new valve guide seals.

Do the valve guide seals if they haven't been replaced previously. They
failed on my 2.5 @ 150k and made an otherwise healthy motor, SMOKE.

If you are doing the job your self, I would give yourself some extra time in
case the heads don't want to just slide off the head studs.  All the 2.5
heads I've pulled were very stubborn, if they came off at all.......  My
expierence was lots of pounding pulling prying and foul language.  Then
again, others on the list had no problems at all.

Best of Luck!

Jason Ball
87 Milano Gold <awaiting parts for the 3rd attempt at deDion bushing
replacement....Praying to the Alfa Gods for a sucessful transplant>

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