My '84 GL made it to 185k (miles) on the original heads and gaskets, but I'm (very slowly) doing a full rebuild now. I think Ken's comments on cycles are valid - my usage is normally 25 mile minimum daily jogs mixed with long trips in the hundreds of miles. I rarely drive it 2-3 miles and shut down. I have a lot of scepticism about the strident admonitions from some here to constantly change the coolant. That's one area where I have admittedly been very lax in my maintainance procedures, but it doesn't seem to have hurt anything. I don't think the coolant was changed more than once during the 14 years I've owned the vehicle. When I removed the heads I found some pitting, but much less than some others I've seen. I replaced the original water pump somewhere around 100k, and am now putting in another new one. I've used Mobil 1 oil since break-in, and I really believe it has helped - I've had zero problem with oil consumption, and moving parts I've measured have all easily met wear specifications listed in the manual. I do change the filter regularly, but the oil usually stays in for 25k miles (gets topped off at filter change of course). I sometimes wonder if climate has anything to do with longevity. Here in Houston a vehicle's engine sees high ambient temperatures, so the range of temperature cycling is far less than what would be seen in the north, where the engine will have to cycle regularly from well below freezing to it's operating point. Here even freezing weather is uncommon. Cliff > >Anyone else have some tips? Any others with more than 100K on their >heads? > |
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