Page 1 of 1

Cost of head replacement?

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:31 am
by subarutangent
I have a 1991 Subaru wagon. It has been a pretty good car. I had some mechanics do some work on it for me, which was fine, but they informed me that my heads are going out. Ugh!

I do have to get the car home, so I decided to just go for it. I drove it about 10 miles; all the while while it overheated, smoked, and blew light grey smoke out the tailpipe like mad!. I got it home, parked it, and pretty much wrote it off. Now I'm stuck in a situation where I need to get it running again.

If what the mechanics say is true.......that means replacing the heads.


All this goes to say..........Is that really worth it?

This car has 225 k miles.

I love the subaru, but i can't invest thousands of bucks to rebuild a car I paid only 800 for.

I charged the battery the other day, stuck the key in, and it fired right up..........So I am massively confused?

Are the heads really going out? or is it just a overheatiing problem?

Thats my subaru worries.......any help?

Re: Cost of head replacement?

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:11 pm
by cj91legss
seems more like you may just need to do your head gasket. If it over heated tho, you may be needing a new block/heads. All of these items you can find at your local pick & pull for very cheap

Re: Cost of head replacement?

Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:05 pm
by beatersubi
You could probably find a good-condition, complete, replacement motor for less than what you'd pay for labor and machine work to have yours repaired.

Re: Cost of head replacement?

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:31 am
by cj91legss
i second that, repairs can be almost 1000 especially if a head is warped, or a block half is warped. if you take it to a mechanic even, they'll get you big time for parts.

Cost of head replacement?

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 5:57 am
by Grayguy
Yeah, just find a different motor. Around here it's pretty easy to fine 2.2s for $100-150.