Hey guys! well....my head gasket finally went at 123k. I don't want to sell the vehicle but looking at these repair estimates (between 7k and 8k) to get everything working again (it needs converters too), I was wondering... couldn't I just get a new engine for it? What are your thoughts?
Thanks!

 

i just replaced my head gaskets through my dealer and it was just under 2k.
i obly have about 86k on it though.

 

7-8k is a huge estimate. Maybe start by listing everything that you were told needs to be done.

Head gaskets should be between 1200-2200
even if you get an entire new exhaust system, I doubt you should be that high.

And yes, you could get an entire new engine installed for around 6k

 

That sounds pretty over priced to me. But just compare the positives and negatives of each one. It could also depend how long you want to keep your truck. If the prices are comparable between the two jobs(which they shouldn't be). You could just say fug it and put a new motor in there and it will probably out live you if you treat it right.

 

You can get a brand new truck for that price and keep the one you have for parts or part it out! That is a huge estimate.

 

Most independent shops will do the head gasket job for around $2200. If you do it yourself the parts will only run a few hundred bucks plus the cats that you need. Even if you do a new engine you will need to replace the cats, and that will be much more than just repairing the engine. If you know the history, and the maint has been done on your current engine, just find a good independent and get it fixed, or spend a few days and do it yourself. It is not that hard if you enjoying working on things.

Where are you located? There might be folks on here that would be willing to lend a hand, or know of a good mechanic close to you.

 

Here's the quote it is brutal.

 

Thanks for posting. This should help everyone in giving you advice.

Again, I'd get all of the actual codes and post them here as well. I don't know much, but it appears he's just replacing everything that could be causing a problem.

RED FLAG (to me):
$3,045 for 1 cat, (4) o2 sensors, and 2 manifold to y-pipe gaskets.
You could get an entire new exhaust system with cats, muffler, y-pipe, o2's, gaskets, etc for less than that and bolt on.
For example, universal cats will cost you around $70 each. The o2 sensors are $70ea. The 2 gaskets are about $6/ea. It looks like he is just going to cut the old cat out and weld in another. Shouldn't be more than $100ish for the cut & weld job, IMO.

 

Thanks DiscoIIBrandon
Yeah, I asked to see where the radiator was leaking and sure enough when I picked it up it was off the lift and sitting out front which just struck me as shady since I made a special call requesting that I be able to look at the Radiator issue (seemed like that was not my problem) I don't know the history of the vehicle very well -I bought it for dirt cheap a year ago w/ a Lemon title out of California. I figured I would take a gamble on this one and I got about 45k miles out if before it started overheating. I towed a boat up to Canada with it and generally drove it non-stop so I'm not too upset with it dying on me. I'd really like to fix it but these numbers seem way out of line and I seriously doubt all these things are bad and need to be replaced. If anyone has any other advice I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!! I took it to Auto-Zone and asked for the codes and they couldn't figure out how to read them. I didn't know where the connection was and obviously they didn't either. Total fail on the codes.

 

You can definitely do better on the Cats and the radiator if those parts really need to be replaced.

Also, why are they replacing the timing chain and gears? At 123k miles they might be a little loose, but if they aren't broken they shouldn't need replaced at this point...

These guys sound like crooks or a shop that has more business than it can handle. Take your truck to another independent Rover shop.