Please bear with me, I want to provide as much info as possible, this has been keeping me up at night.. I've had my beloved montero since 2007. It only has 137,000 on the ODO. From 2015-2019, I let my sister use it while in school. As much as I tried to impart the importance of routine maintenance, it seems as if she didn't take very good care of my car.
I spent 3 days replacing the timing belt about a year ago, only to have the car massively overheat after driving 5 miles past the local car wash. Car wouldn't start or respond at all to the key in the ignition immediately following this. But did after about 20 minutes. I had it towed home and my buddy who went to school to be a car tech came over and looked it over. When using the accelerator, we saw a decent amount of water coming out of the exhaust in park. With the overheating symptom in addition, he seemed to be pretty confident that I have a blown head gasket.
I had to tow the car to my dad's to avoid weekly street sweeping tickets and fines for no current registration. I've gotten serious about doing something with it because I'm wasting time and money at this point. I took the car to a mechanic so that they could properly diagnose the issue or issues. I checked the radiator cap upon dropping it off, and noticed a white film that resembled Vaseline. He told me a day later that they sprayed the engine compartment down for spiders, replaced the radiator cap, and thermostat. He said he tried to get the car to overheat, but couldn't and believes there is no head gasket issue. He did not do a block or pressure test. The work estimate he came back with was comparable to the head gasket job at about $1800 to replace exhaust manifold gaskets, valve cover gasket, cv axle, coolant flush, and brake pads. There may be another component, but I'm drawing a blank.
I let the car idle for about an hour yesterday then drove it a mile or so to see if it would overheat at temperature. The needle never went past the 1/3 point.
I'm in a difficult position because I'm basically selling the car at a very low price($1200) to a buddy who wants me to hire a shop to do the routine maintenance it needs. He's never actually seen or driven it and is committing based on my description. At this point, I almost want to talk him out of it because no price is worth making my problem, someone elses.
Please help me!

 

What exactly are you asking for help on? Whether you should sell or not? Asking if the price the mechanic charged you was fair? Want help diagnosing the overheating and water in the exhaust?
If you are asking if you should sell, that's all on you brah. We are not in your shoes to know all of the variables, but good luck.

 

It is OK to sell your car in AS IS condition, granted that you tell your friend what you know about the past overheating issue, what work was done to diagnose/fix it and what else mechanic thinks needs to be done. At that point it is up to the buyer (your friend) to decide if this is what he wants or not. What may seem as a big deal for one person may look totally OK to another. As long as you provide information, you are in the clear after that.

 

"I let the car idle for about an hour yesterday then drove it a mile or so to see if it would overheat at temperature. The needle never went past the 1/3 point."


hi
the needle should be near the half - it looks like somebody pulled out the thermostat.
aharon