**** I just noticed I have a similiar thing going on. Last year, my car would go up to the red mark on the heat gauge, when I turned on the heat and rolled the windows down, and kept at a high speed then it would be fine. So I got a fluid flush and burped the lines. I hadnt really noticed anything, however recently I noticed that when I start the car, and give it a quick 2k RPM rev, I have quite a bit of "thin" white smoke coming out with a gas smell......head gasket sounds awful lol..........

 

Mine too.
Hell, half the time I can't bill out MY time!

 

Wow, bad day.
Good luck.

 

Do it yourself for about $400-600 depending or whether or not you have warped heads!

 

You may have mised a few posts.

(A) The work has already begun.
(B) Engine removal and tear down is outside his skill set (and probably downtime allowance!).

 

I remember when I blew a head gasket on my DOHC 96 grandprix GTP, which blew outward into the engine bay. I didnt let it overheat so I removed the heads and got them machined for $150, gasket set was $100, head studs was $5 each, with other stuff needed I ended up paying $350. It took me a couple weeks to complete the job (a few hrs a day and a second car to fall back on) and 5yrs later car still runs great.

Had a 96 t-bird with the 4.6 sohc and I wanted the improved performance heads off the 99+ mustang GT installed. I installed them and everything turned out perfect (car was sold though). Besides the new heads I spent like 300 in parts and a week of off and on labor.

I did both those cars just visiting boards like this, didnt go to school or buy a repair book just researched and went to work. Granted Im good with my hands but I feel that if im confident in doing something then nothing is impossible. Someone who's livelyhood comes from working on cars will charge more than a person who works on a car as a side thing.

 

$2000 is a descent price for a head gasket replacement if everything is done right. Ofcourse I would never spend that much on a head gasket job since it would be cheaper to drop in a low mileage engine. are we talking about a vq30 or vq35? Either way, you can get either with good mileage in the $400-600 price range.

anyways, hopefully you have better luck with you car in the future. 75k miles is nothing for the vq engines, im surprised your HG went bad in the first place unless there's something you're not telling or simply do not know about how it was taken car off by the previous owner.

 

Is the $2000 in the other guy's pocket yet? If not ....I didn't miss a thing!

 

3.5 with 90k in charlotte nc for $350.... So 1600 for labor? rofl, +1 on finding your own motor, and a different mechanic.

 

I missed that too^^..... gl...

 

The car is done, and it was ~20 hours labor at $80/hour.....to pull engine, fix it, put it back, and change the rear struts.

Hopefully this is the one few big repair bills I will see in life.

This experience makes me appreciate all the repairs and maintenance I do myself.

 

Did you replace the engine or HG?

 

Head Gasket, I mean 2K for a little piece of thingy between the blocks and all that! It makes my wallet hurt just thinking about it.

 

I replaced the head gasket because I know the complete history of the car.

I didn't think ~40k miles was worth finding an engine I don't first hand experience with....

Maybe it was the wrong choice, but as long as this car goes another 100k miles without major repairs I can't complain too much. (My 2000 maxima has 185k miles on it.)

I have noticed two good things so far

1) I installed an aftermarket stereo about 1 year ago, it always had some engine whine. I tried grounding it to the chassis after connecting it to the harness, then both, then bought a filter but nothing worked. I thought it was because I bought a low end stereo (Dual). Now the engine whine is gone! There must have been some marginal connection that was fixed during all this (but the factory stereo worked fine).
2) AC is much colder.