engine miss

i have a 1986 elcamino conquestador. the engine has a miss in it. i took to mechanic. he said may be a cracked head or needs a head gasket. i told him to get estimates for me on each service. in the mean time i would like to have y'alls opinion with ur experience on this kind of thing. how much should i expect to pay for this type of service.
i have already put $1200 in repairs (front end work, tune up and new distributor etc). do u think it's even worth putting more money in it? other than the miss it runs great and looks good. no rust or dents and enterior is good. thanks for any help y'all can give.

 

Paying a mechanic to pull the heads will probably cost you another $1200. Plus while they're off you should have the valves ground and valve guides done -- another $200. You gotta decide if its worth it to you.

 

I'd do it then. If it weren't for rust, I might still have the same car I started out with in high school.

Maybe that particular vehicle may reach a point where it starts appreciating rather than depreciating, if you keep it up in real nice condition.

 

I wouldn't go hog-wild on a head job unless I had some concrete evidence (after some actual troubleshooting rather than guess-work) that it needed it. Cracked head/blown head gasket(s) are very easy to determine. Could be something that would cost way less that a head job.

 

1986 Chevy Truck EL Camino V8-305 5.0L Head Gasket Parts Information Part OEM Part Price
Cylinder Head Gasket 2 - Head Gasket 10105115 $36.34 Notes
Labor SkillLevel Mfg.
Cylinder Head Gasket Replace
Labor Skill Warranty Standard
Right Bank B 5.0 6.5
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
Left Bank B 4.6 6.1
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
Both Banks B 7.0 9.0
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
Note With AC, Add B 0.6 0.9
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
With A.I.R. Add B 0.4 0.7
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
With Auto Trans, Add B 0.3 0.5
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
With PS, Add B 0.3 0.5
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
With Cruise Control, Add B 0.3 0.5
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
With C.C.C., Add B 0.3 0.5
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.
With Manual Trans, Add B 0.5 0.8
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make Necessary Adjustments.

as you can see from the labor guide to replace both head gasket it is 9.0 hour labor plus if you auto tans, p/s, a/c, ect... the labor goes up. At the shop where I work labor rate is $98.00 hour so that almost $900.00 plus all the other stuff. you might run a compression test yourself to see if u have head issues its not hard. Go to the parts house and buy a compression tester. Take out a spark plug turn the engine over 5 time look at the gague and get your reading it should be (100 psi) be sure to hold the trottle wide open and do this for each cylinder they should be near the same psi if u have one to to low thats you problem. oh I almost forgot disable the ignition system SO THE CAR DOES NOT START!!! look at the distributor cap and pull off the cable in the center that cable coms from the coil check and make sure it will not start. If compression test is good there is nothing wrong with the heads or gaskets check the plug wires are any of them rubbing together arking across to something were any plugs droped and damaged during installation?

 

I would do a LOT of looking before I spent ANY money. Don't know how much mechanical ability/knowledge you have, but I'll bet you know someone who does. Check the timing to see if it is on(with a timing light). Check plugs for fouling(how old are the plugs/and wires), check wires for wear and grease.(Night time with the underhood light off(engine running) will sometimes show up a bad plug/coil wire. If they are very old, I would replace them with GOOD wires. When was the rotor button and cap replaced. Is it carburated? If so, is the choke working properly? Any vacuum lines cracked, loose, missing, off?? A lot of things can cause a miss and I certainly would check out all the easy stuff first. That said, that era chevy engine(305) did have some problems with worn camshafts( bad metal in the shaft).
Don't miss the TREES while looking at the FOREST!!!