No issues with mine at this point, but curious. I see more threads than I care to about blown head gaskets and it got me wondering if a teardown and replacement is a normal preventative maintenance item (admittedly a major one) for a stock engine or is the kind of thing we all just sort of wait out and see how far we get? Is it a less expensive proposition to do it preventatively as I imagine it might not require milling of the heads or is a head gasket job always pretty much the same amount of effort? I have no mods on my car, nothing planned at this time, but if I ever do they would be minor, like a supercharger pulley and a charge coolant pump upgrade.

 

98 99 and 2000 all were known for blowing composite gaskets out, they knew about it and 01 and up went to steel.

on those you will warp the head or drop a valve seat before you blow a head gasket

 

How many miles on your car?

 

158k miles on the odometer. Car has a replacement engine that is newer than the car, but has unknown miles. Hard to read the numbers on the side of the block, but I think its 01 1123 0358, which I think means the engine was built on Nov 23, 2001 (car was built Sept 2000 as an 01 model).

 

I wouldn't change cylinder head gaskets as a preventative maintenance as, if the work is not done very carefully, you may introduce a problem where there wasn't one to start with. This, I think, is very much a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

Thanks!