Serpentine belt broke while the mother in law was driving the Lumina (3.1 ltr). As a result, the head gasket blew out. Replaced the head gasket this weekend, along with upper and lower intake and exhaust gaskets. New plugs, oil, filter, coolant. Had to resurface the heads - installed new seals too. Seems to be running well. Keeping my fingers crossed. I was offered $300 for the car by the tow truck driver. Turned him down. Hopefully it still has plenty of miles left in it. It's at 212,000 now. Most people would have sent it off to the junkyard - the shop wanted $2,400 to do the repairs. I spent about $500 on all the parts and fluids. Took me 8 hrs to disassemble and 12 to reassemble. I didn't have any left over nuts or bolts, so that was good!

 

Nice! Glad you saved it from what could have happened.

 

Congrats!!

I have about 217,000 on my 3100 in my '94 Grand Am! The drive train runs great, but the body is getting rougher by the day. But if the body of your Lumina is still solid and in good shape, a well maintained 3100 can go a LONG way.

BTW - I've replaced the LIM gasket once around 100K and then had to do LIM and head gaskets at 180K.

 

The Lumina has been if Florida all it's life - so no rust.

 

Glad you fixed it. I have a buddy who is a tow truck driver and people offer him cars all the time. Especially on impound's, they dont want to pay the fees so they just sell them the car.