Headers

Asked by Pauline May 05, 2018 at 07:20 PM about the 2000 Saturn L-Series 4 Dr LS1 Sedan

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

We have a 2000 Saturn LS1 we just bought
from family how do we find out if the
headers are bad? We just got a new
thermostat and are going to buy a new water
pump just in case that's the issue but was
just told by our son in law it could be the
headers if they ever let it over heat. We drove
it and stopped before it hits red.

2 Answers

101,515

I'm going to assume you meant head gaskets, as those can cause overheating when bad. "Headers" usually refer to a type of exhaust pipe used in place of the factory exhaust manifold and would not cause the type of overheating you seem to refer to. Bad head gaskets can cause heat, and excess pressure to enter the cooling jacket (where the radiator fluid flows) and thus cause overheating. One test to check for bad head gaskets is a compression test of each cylinder with a special tool - it installs into the spark plug threaded opening and checks how much pressure that chamber can hold, measured in psi. If any cylinder is 10% or more below the readings of the other cylinders, it's considered bad. Usually low readings are due to a "blown" head gasket, although sometimes it can be due to a bad intake or exhaust valve or even bad piston rings. The best thing to do in your case, before you start throwing parts at it, is let a mechanic check the head gaskets (if anyone in your family is handy, you can buy a compression tester fairly cheap and follow a youtube vid on how to test the head gaskets). The only way to really repair head gaskets is to remove the cylinder heads, which is a substantial job and may exceed the value of an 19 year old Saturn.

1 people found this helpful.

Sorry I meant head lol we are just gonna buy new head and water ouno and go from there we bought it super cheap from our sister in law so I'm not worried about putting money into it. Other then the over heating problem there isn't much else wrong with it. We are also replacing ball joint on one side that's the only other issue.

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