Blown head gasket?

[phasmid123]

Ok I think I have a blown head gasket. My coolant disappears mysteriously and engine overheats quickly.

I have a bad back so I can't work on it myself. Can someone tell me approximately how much it's gonna cost me to fix it? Also, if it's a cracked head (I'm praying it's not), how much for that???

I have a 91 Explorer with 170K miles on it so I'm just thinking if it's worth fixing or not.... Thanks a lot!

 

[Creager]

This job can be had for probably less then $500 with new head castings, doing it yourself of course. A head-swap would be relativly easy considering the most you have to remove is the intake and the valve covers... and the front dressing. Its like, 36 bolts and 16 nuts. Actually the exhaust manifolds are going to be a PINA, but it shouldnt take more than 4-5 hours at most if you worked straight through. I could get my heads off in an hour, less if i was in the mood for air tools. But I'm way too lazy to work that fast, hahah, and im using all new parts which would make it 10x easier to disassemble.

If you do get the guts to do this, make sure you use FORD gaskets (esspecially for the lower intake and the valve covers), Felpro gaskets will be fine for the heads and the upper intake/fuel rail.

Guestimating that labor is around $60 an hour at most places, and using my quote for parts, this job would probably $700-$1000 getting it done somewhere

If it's worth it or not is up to you. I would only find it worth it if i were doing a cam swap and replacing the entire valve train while i was at it.