broken crankshaft, now head gasket?

[pookapa]

i have a 97 xlt SOHC and this past winter i was driving home from a day of skiing, CEL came on and a couple minutes later there was a bang and stalled out, i look to see the harmonic balancer hanging there, broken crankshaft great. well after having it in the shop to put in a 99 SOHC engine in, (first engine he put in was bad so had to put in another one) after i got it back, the CEL came back on, took it back and scanner said it was an O2 sensor. replaced that and the light came back again. the mechanic says that the only thing left is the head gasket, so what kind of fix does this entail on a explorer, any price estimates for mechanic to do it? or better off doing it myself?

 

[budwich]

wow... not much luck there. Hmmm but I wouldn't go jumping into a head gasket just yet. There should be "signs" of other problems. Loss of coolant maybe, plugs that are misfiring, oil "colors", compression issues. These should all be checked.

 

[Space Truckin']

I agree, don't let the tech talk you into a high dollar repair you may not need. There are lots of clues when a head gasket blows and a simple compression test is the proper way to confirm it. What were the codes when the CEL came back? Was the code different before the O2 sensor replacement?