If you pay for my airline ticket - I'll be there and I'll even bring some good PNW craft beer to help along

 

You have no idea how serious I am when I say that would be awesome ha!

I'm going to my mechanic today to ask him for an estimate. I'll let you guys know!

 

Probably cheaper to buy him a plane ticket :P

 

Well....

I went to my mechanic and he quoted me roughly $1,800 including parts and labor. That also includes having the heads sent out and machined/pressure cleaned/inspected etc..

I only paid $1,600 for the car!

So now I need to make a decision on junking the car.. or maybe even parting out to recoup some of my money and then buying another car.

 

It is a tough decision. However, with older vehicles you can't compare purchase price with the cost of repairs. For example - the cost of the set of tires I need for one of my rigs is higher than the price I paid for the car You have to make your decision based on why you wanted this specific vehicle and go from there. Having heads checked is a must and you can do it when you pull them. In reality, you only need to machine them if they actually warped. Mechanic will do it because it's a good insurance policy for him and he is not the one paying for it. However, machining cost is not really that high. Call couple machine shops around and find out how much they'd charge for it. I'm pretty sure that most of the cost you've been quoted is the labor. That is the unfortunate reality of life when you have to have a mechanic working on it - they do need to make a living like all of us.

 

Thanks for the reply man, and yeah I get what you mean and fully understand/agree.

I need to sleep on it I think..

Do you know of any articles/write ups on pulling the heads? I have never done it and am told I need special tools and spring compressors etc..

 

There are some good links on the sticky posts right at the top of Montero board. You should be able to find links to PDF manuals there (it may take some looking but they are there). You will not need spring compressor, unless you are removing/reinstalling valves. If you are doing just the head gaskets, the head will come out with all valves attached and you do not need to do anything about them. You will need to re-time the engine (new timing belt, and tensioner would be a good idea at this point).
As far as removing heads - when you took off the valve covers, you were more than half way there. At that point you need to remove few bolt to take out the camshafts and then 8 large bolt and you have the head off. As far as tools you MUST have - its a torque wrench and specs for the torque and bolt sequence when you are installing the heads. Otherwise you may warp the heads during the install. Depending on the design of the timing belt tensioner you may or may not need a funky little pre-tensioner. People have done the timing belt without it but it is not expensive ($15 or so online).
BTW, I am serious about helping. I will have some time off at the end of October beginning of November and I'd be willing to come over to help.

 

Thanks for the information man and all of your help throughout this entire situation - I really do appreciate your time!

I slept on it, and discussed things with the wife this morning and I think I am going to part it out and then scrap it for whatever then junkyard will give me.

Given the fact that the head gasket blew while on the highway at around 75mph who knows what other sort of internal damage it could have done.

I will be putting up a part out/sale thread soon, so if anyone needs parts just message me!

David