Impala head gasket blown

[MossRoad]

I need some advice.

My daughter has been using our 2000 Impala for the last three or four years while going to college. Friday she was heading out of town to meet some friends and got stuck in traffic on the interstate for two hours. Then the electric cooling fan failed and the car overheated to the point that it died. Thankfully she made it onto an outer road, and then to a gas station.

After incurring a hefty tow bill to get it back to my trusted mechanic, I got the bad news that the head gasket had blown. Cost estimate is $1,300 for replacement with valve job, assuming the head is good, which I don't know of course. The fan motor is $300. Add another $100 or so for new plugs and a new belt and we are in it for about $1700 assuming best case.

The car has 190k on it and ran great before the issue. The engine is a 3.4l. I've kept the car mechanically in good shape, and cosmetically it is ok, but teenage girls are hard on cars. Recent outlays included new front bearings, struts, and other suspension parts, new brakes and rotors, new ac compressor, and the tires only have about 5k on them, all told about $4k in the last two years. The car is super comfortable and everyone in the family likes it. The only other potential big ticket items on the car would be the transmission, which is working fine right now.

I do trust my mechanic, as I have done a lot of business with them and they have always been fair and honest.

So as I see it my choices are:

1) Dump the car with the head gasket problem and buy a new one. I'd get maybe $500 out of it, and reasonable cars could be had for $3k to $4k more.

2) Move forward with replacing the head gasket/valve job and hope that the head is ok. Cost would be about $1,700. The shop I trust does not rebuild whole engines.

3) Obtain a low mileage used engine and have the shop swap it out. Cost would be about $3k according the the mechanic, but it remains to be seen what the engine will cost.

4) Another option is rebuilt, but I don't know what that would cost, and the mechanic didn't mention it. Online sources for rebuilt engines show about $2k plus shipping.

I am thinking that the first option is the least desirable, since for the price I'm looking at, I could just be buying another problem. Budget dictates no more than about a $4k outlay, as I will not borrow money for a car. But if someone thinks differently, please educate me. It's just that I've replaced a lot of wear items in the car already, and it drives really nice.

I'm thinking that a used engine or a rebuilt would be better than doing essentially a top end refresh on an engine with 190k on it, since something else might go wrong. I'm really looking for some advice here, as I'm in a quandary as to what to do. I hate spending so much money on repairing an old car that is only worth maybe $2k when fixed. However, I'm not sure I buy into the concept that you don't ever spend more money to fix a car than it's worth. The worth of a car, in my opinion, is how reliably it gets you to your destination. I think that when repaired, this car would be more reliable than a car I could buy with the amount required to fix this one.

Advice please.

I have a 2000 Impala with the 3.8. I can get a used engine for $500.00 and install it myself in 2 days. $3K seems excessive, to me. Tranny repairs on that year can run $2500 and that will fail soon, given the mileage on the car.

If I were in you shoes, I would find another used Impala with low miles, have your trusted mechanic give it his blessing before purchase, then, if all is well, swap the tires and be done with it.

 

[Tig]

I lost a head gasket on a trip one summer. Since I did not significantly overheat the car and I was the primary driver, I opted for the cheapest way out. I pulled the head, replaced the gasket and kept on driving it. If I couldn't have done that I think I would have dumped it and replaced it with something that had half as many miles on it.
I've changed engines on other cars, it's a big job. So, my vote is to replace this car with an 05.

 

[fishman]

An update from my mechanic:

Cost for tow (60 loaded miles) and electric fan module is $525.

Cost for gaskets and valve job is $1,350. Could be more if head is cracked

Cost for used engine installed with 85k on it is $2,300

Looking at area Craigslist cars yesterday evening was disappointing. $3k cars are pretty sketch and $2k cars are not suitable. Looks like $5 to $6k would be required for a decent replacement car, which is more than I have.

Of the two options above, I like the used engine route for $1k more than a head gasket/valve job. The ballpark estimate for rebuilding the transmission if it went was less than $1,500, and that is the biggest potential cost for the near future.

All of this would be easier if I had a car replacement fund set aside. My wife and I just finished paying off all our debts except the house using the Dave Ramsey plan. (highly recommend it) Unfortunately, our emergency fund isn't up to snuff yet.

The mechanic is going to look some more for a less expensive/lower mileage engine. I'm going to continue looking at Craigslist. There is more than one way to get things done

 

[aczlan]

The mechanic is going to look some more for a less expensive/lower mileage engine. I'm going to continue looking at Craigslist. There is more than one way to get things done

Might be able to pick up a Impala that got tboned or rear ended for $cheap and pull the engine from that...

Aaron Z

 

[fishman]

Warning! . . . Warning! Zombie thread alert!

I came across this old thread of mine from 10 years ago and saw that I didn't let everyone know what I did. Now of course, it's irrelevant in the context of that crisis, but the end result might be helpful to know for others who might find themselves considering a similar course of action.

I ultimately had the used engine installed and things went smoothly with that. My daughter drove it until she graduated, and kept it afterwards. She got married and they drove that car some more. They drove the tires off of it, then replaced them with some super cheap tires, which required replacing after about 25k more miles. All told they put approximately 75k more miles on it over about 5 years without a mechanical breakdown, including one very long cross-country trip which worried the heck out of me. In the end they traded it in for $1k or so on a slightly used little Honda SUV and I breathed a sigh of relief.

So the decision to put a used engine in it ended up just fine. I didn't incur any debt, and she had transportation. She also learned why its important to maintain your car and appreciated the newer car when she got it. My son, who was 9 at the time, also learned from her mistakes and he is very, very responsible with his car's maintenance. In fact, he loves working on his car.

There. I finished this thread. Better late than never.

 

[dodge man]

Wrong choice, you should have hauled it to the crusher, then spoiled her by buying her a brand new BMW. In all honesty I would have told you to bail on it.

Good to hear it worked out, of course I didn’t realize this thread was 10 years until I got to the end.

 

[mark in portugal]

Fun to read the end report of the story and know you had a good result.
I had a 1965 Impala...that was around 1990. I wonder where it is now?

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I will swap in gas engines all day every day for 600 bucks. Just make the check out to Citizens Against Social Healing. You can abbreviate it CASH. I SWAPPED them all the time. In with some used car dealers. They'd buy things with bad engines or transmissions. Diesels are a little more. Some of them you have to pull the cab. Some gas trucks are that way too. I would fix the impala. If you dont buy her a new car you will just be buying another problem. Those cars last. Did she have several gallons of water since its an older car?I carry. Mine is in the 200,000 mile club. Heading to 500,000 if I dont wreck it. Sounds like you need to explain to her how things work. And how when she don't do her part it makes you work to pay for this stuff. That fan was making noise before it went out. She kept going till it rattled and quit. Put all new hoses on it too. I even buy a new radiator. Impala is an easy engine swap.

 

[dodge man]

Go back and read the thread, it’s 10 years old and the OP updated it.