As some of you may recall I just purchased my G a few months ago and had to replace the motor due to piston ring failure. So finally I got it replaced with an engine with only 6600 miles on it and now come to find out my driver side headgasket is leaking.. So I got quoted from the same shop that did the work at just about 1800 for everything.. Almost twice as much to replace the engine labor wise. Does this seem steep to anybody? If I can't find anybody to do it for a reasonable price I'm just gonna trade it in for a newer Tahoe towards the end of the month and call it a day... Fml right? Lol

 

that does suck

 

Maybe the Mechanic set you up for failure to come back and get more work done. Just a thought...

 

Damn dude sorry that sucks

 

I'd get another quote elsewhere. Parts can't be more than $100 at most....probably more like half that. That leaves $1,700 for labor. Even at $75/hr. that's nearly 23 hours worth of labor. I just can't imagine it would take a competent mechanic more than five hours to change a head gasket. Ten hours tops.

I've never torn into an overhead cam engine though, so take that for what it's worth.

 

Don't have the numbers in front of me but it takes quite alot of time to work on head gaskets on this fancy VQ engine. Many prefer to swap complete motors then deal with repairing heads due to amount of work involved. I think it calls for like 13-15 hours for heads R&I and for engine swap is like 8-10 hours. The heads is tricky and getting all the timing components, cams, buckets/shims and everything in correct order. I would look at other shops in the area since you are planning on only getting one bank done and seems like your dealer is quoting you for both banks in labor. Also look into possibly going to a specialty vq shop like forged, dynosty, s&R or other high performance shops and look into getting your specific motor rebuilt with aftermarkets cams, HR gasket, and new springs.

 

wtf? few moths ago and the shop refused to cover it under warranty?

 

I purchased the car from Craigslist. The seller disappeared right afterwards.

Considering the amount of money I've already spent on this car there's no way I can justify spending this much money on the repair and unfortunately after I take yet another hit on the trade in value I'll be a total of around 7k in the hole

 

Interesting. Even at 15 hours though it seems it should be a $1,200 job.

blackout2277, what symptoms does your car have that makes your mechanic think it's a head gasket?

What's the year model, mileage, and general condition of the car we're discussing?

 

Dumping this G35 may not be a good idea, find a qualified mechanic that will replace the head gasket for less $$. You'll lose more by replacing this G with something else as long as it's fixed correctly...
Gary

 

The car is an 04 g coupe 6mt. It's not in terrible condition it's needs rear tires and an alignment. It's kinda swirl marked to hell but I was plan on taking car of that when the weather got better.
Shortly after the swap I noticed my coolant was low and I can smell a hint of coolant from the exhaust. Sometimes on cold starts I get an extreme coolant smell upon start up until it warns up.

@ Gary I would want to fix it but every step I take something else is wrong and i can't really afford to put any more money out of pocket after the swap certainly not almost 2k. If there was a possibility to find someone to do the work for me and would accept weekly payments I would def do that but that's unheard of nowadays. Unfortunately I don't make alot of money and have a mortgage and 2 kids to support one of which is autistic and has constant therapies to go to. I can't really devote most of my time on the car while it just sits there getting fixed constantly

 

Sounds like it could be a head gasket...perhaps even a cracked head, though I'd expect a higher volume of coolant if that were the case.

Is the car financed? If it's not, you should be able to talk your bank into loaning you $2000, using the car as collateral to secure the loan. That way you'd be able to get the car fixed, and avoid taking a bigger financial hit with yet another trade.

Best wishes.

 

The car is financed and I had to take out a small loan to cover parts of the engine replacement the first go around

 

^ your in a really "FML" situation...

 

I agree my clutch when out right after my warranty when up now im stuck doing the **** in my driveway because im in the middle of switching jobs and im low on funds ... The last bolt in the transmission is almost stripped i dont know what to do.... !!