95 Grand Am Head Gasket - time to say goddbye?

[stan_5150]

95 Grand Am - 121K - 3.1L

My wifes car. She's running errands and gets the low coolant light and SES light. She's close enough to a local station to have them look at it. I get the next day and they tell me that they ran a couple of pressure tests and the head gaskets are gone. At first we just thought that there was just a leak from the overflow tank but what is happening is that there is internal pressure within the cooling system that it's forcing anti-freeze out of the system through the overflow.

They put an estimate out there for approx $2700 for head gaskets, machining and all that. The car isn't worth that much (it's also got tranny probs) so I'm wondering how much you think I could get for it selling it outright. Would $1000 OBO be too much to ask? I'd obviously disclose the head gasket problem.

Thoughts?

[xeroinfinity]

You'll be lucky to get $500 without feeding someone a line of whoha.
That quote is realy high too!!

Used heads are not that expensive.
Gasket sets run around $300-350 for heads and the intake gaskets.

Might get another quote before you try and sell.

Good Luck

[stan_5150]

Thanks. I might try another to get another quote.

[xeroinfinity]

Done a search at cherr-auto and found some pretty cheap heads!!
Less then $200 each!!
http://www.urgpartsearch.com/link/se...estTimeout=500

[stan_5150]

Update - Took it to the local Goodyear and they did the head pressure test and found a small leak. They suggested running some block leak through it rather than jumping straight into heads. Ran the pressure test again and so far so good. It's up an running like a champ. How long it lasts is anyone's guess but it's just a car for right around town and the wife doesn't need it every day anyhow.