Ok well heres the deal my dad gave me. He called his mechanic buddy and the guy said that he can do gaskets for around 500. if the heads need to be machined, that will bring the cost up to 1000-1200. Then of course if things are at their worst, it will be around 2 grand for the engine. I told my dad about the tips I have gotten on here. He told me do what ever I want, because if I melt the pistons i am just walking. Otherwise, he has offered me a 1000 dollar loan to get the car fixed. We don't know what exactly is wrong with the engine. Basically, my options are take the hard route of trying to tear my engine apart myself, keep in mind i have no engine experience, or send it to a mechanic and lose a heck of a lotta money in labor costs. THe mechanic might be my best bet. I am going to see if he is willing to do a free diagnostic on it and see if we can pinpoint a problem first. If he cna do that I will probably go with him. I would love to be able to work on everything myself but at the time I have no were to wrok on the engine, don't have the tools etc. I am hoping that this leads to something good though. Last time something seemed infinitly wrong, we pulled the fuel rail out and found 2 ruined injectors and had them replaced before it ruined anything else.

 

If I read all the posts correctly you said the engine wont turn over at all? If this is the case I would charge the battery to full, pull all the spark plugs and see if coolant comes out. If no coolant comes out I would drain the oil and look for coolant. If no coolant in the oil I would try to turn the motor over by hand using a socket and breaker bar on the main pulley bolt. If you cant turn the motor by hand with the plugs out, you have a serious problem and replacing the head gaskets wont fix. I seized an engine and it took me and my dad with a pipe on the end of a breaker bar to finally get it to spin. It only ran for a week until it threw a rod. If you do get it to run you may consider traiding you problem. I dont like that advice but times are tough.

 

^+1 on that, siezed engine are PITA`s, better do test it out using a cheaper route than to fix something that isnt the problem. it sounds like the previous owner didnt do crap to maintain the car and as soon as he/she got as far as they could, sold it. since you dont have the funds to get another car i suggest having a good mechanic look over it after you do the tests to really see how far YOU can go with this car, cuz not running you`ll get close to nothing for it.

 

ok none of the tests will screw the engine over right? thats what my dads worried about

 

if there is coolant in the cylinder or the oil pan then the sooner you get it out the better. keep track of what (if any coolant) cylinder anything comes out of, mechanic will want to know that.

 

how do i check what cylinder it comes out of? will it come out of that plug only?

 

yes and it actually should show on the plugs when you take them out.

 

Ok so heres an update on the car. I allowed my dad to ahve the car towed to his mechanic friend. So far we have the following problems found

Temp Sensor fried
The i believe main tensioner pulley is cracked
and the hose to the egr system is no good

This is what they found and they haven't gotten to the heads yet. Thats where we are nervous. I am going tomorrow to try and see how they are coming along and maybe snag a few pictures. So wish me luck on all this lol. I don't need messed up heads lol

 

Well we have the final update today. Nothing, sounded good. THey need to rebuild the motor, and replace the radiator. Thats keeping the list short. THe timing chain was off, the heads were warped, the radiator would blow within the month, so my dad gave them the ok to work on everything. THey are doing everything for 2200. Even if they find more wrong, it won't raise the price. The transmission is doing good according to them, the suspension is good, so hopefully when this is rebuilt, the car will be just like new.

 

2200 is cheap. pictures?