I have a 2001 Montero XLS and I'm getting a burning smell. The deal told me that I have a leak from the head and valve cover. He said the right head was warped probably from the engine overheating at some point. That would need to be replaced. The engine is also burning a little oil so he suggested having the the left head rebuilt as well.

The quote for this is $3700 including replacing the timing belt.

My question's are

• Does the diagnosis this sound reasonable? I read that cam seal leaks are common so it might be that maybe?
• Does $3700 sound like a reasonable price? Could I expect significant savings from an independent shop?
• I'm inclined to try to fix this myself. How big a job is it to replace? Are their any major hurdles or specialized tools required? I'm pretty handy and have done a lot of auto repairs in the past but I've never dug too deep into the engine.
  I have found replacement heads online for $325 MITSUBISHI HEAD
• Would you feel comfortable using rebuilt heads like the ones I linked to for the job or stick to OEM parts?

 

q: can you do the work?

If the answer is no, then its irrelevant that you can buy chinese heads for 300 buck.

To replace 2 heads, gaskets, tensionrs, belt etc is at least a day's work.

 

in experience, rebuilt heads are almost as good as new heads, but if you are trying to get performance new ones will handle a little more stress than rebuilt. If you are somewhat familiar with working on cars then changing the heads shouldn't be to hard to do yourself and save a lot of money.

 

Thanks. Not looking for performance just to correct an oil burning problem and leak.