Hey guys got a quick question for you.My sister has 1995 6 clyinder 3.4 camaro.She started overheating coming back from gainsville about a week ago,and she had to get the car towed to the shop.We ruled out the water pump because that was replaced about 2 months prior.So they did their test (tambay auto repair on hillborough) and they said they did three diffrent tests and they all came back positive for head gasket.They estimated $1750 to fix.So we were just going to not get it fixed so im at the house today messing with it and after about 10 minutes running its over flowing out of the radiator,so i thought shit just for kicks let me replace the thermostat just to see.So long story short i replaced it and let it idle for about 20 min and drove it about 5 miles came back and its still not overheating?So my question is does it sound like its fixed or just waiting to break down again?Sorry for being so long im just wondering if the shop made a error and mis judged?Thanks in advance
Brandon
*EDIt the car ran normal after changing thermostat , and no signs of water in the oil, and the thermostat had never been replaced*

 

The shop was probably trying to rip you off. $1750 is very high for a head gasket replacement anyway even with machineing. Even still, MAKE SURE there is no water in the oil, oil in the water, or any other mysterious oil/water leaks.

A blown head gasket on an NA car is typically caused by overheating. Its a possibility that your thermostat went bad and the head gaskets blew because of it. I would not suspect a head gasket problem at all though unless you were losing water or oil without it dripping on to the ground.