97 Ford Escort Blown Head Gasket

[goth-kitty]

Hey all! This is my first post here but I was wondering if anyone had any idea how to not spend a bunch of money to replace a blown head gasket on my little 97 Ford Escort. She has 212000 miles and I cant afford to throw a bunch of money into her. But I dont just want to junk it either. Ideas??

[Escort_LX]

If you are a DIY and know how to do the stuff with no hurry you can save, here are the expenses
1) Felpro Head Gasket $16.70 from
http://www.pickproparts.com/PartsLis...ategoryID=5412
2) Felpro Crank Gasket $8-$20 from the same place
3) High Mileage Oil & Oil Filter
4) New Cylinder Head Bolts $26.44
5) Taking the head to a machine shop to check warpage and do a valve seal replacement from $110-$180
6) Thermostat $15


These are prices with no labor
IMPORTANT NOTE: If the engine overheated or not it is important to take the head to a machine shop to check for damage to the head like cracks or warpage, also is very important to replace the head bolts as they loose its griping torque and fail to provide adequate torque for the gasket and head to the engine block. A good thing to do since is that high mileage is to replace the valve seals as they are the problem when the car begins to burn oil, in general do an overall check and replacement as necessary to the head parts.

Even if the problem was not overheating it’s a good idea to replace the thermostat. Note that if water has entered into the engine remove the crack case and flush the engine, reason is that oil and coolant forms a sticky solution that bonds to the bearing and other parts damaging them and in the long run damaging again the engine.

Good Luck with your proyect. If any other help you can visit a escort only forum at
ESCORT RACING