"Needs Headgasket"

Looking at the Craigslist forum, I was struck by how many cars are listed as "needs headgasket".

To me buying a car for $1000, swapping out a headgasket for my labor, and then re-selling for $2500 is a winning proposition. I don't think a headgasket is all that tough.

But what do they really mean by that? Is it actually diagnosed as such...or is it just a catch-all term? What else could be wrong? (warped head? cracked block? massive internal damage?)

I would always assume that it's a codeword for "has a serious problem that you can't properly diagnose or fix until you've bought the car but it's no big deal, trust me! ^_^ "

I've often wondered the same thing.

Apart from my paranoia over wondering what caused the blown head gasket if that's what it is...

Seems like the safest bet is to only go for something that wouldn't ruin everything if you end up having to do a junkyard engine swap...

Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.

ransom wrote: I've often wondered the same thing. Apart from my paranoia over wondering what *caused* the blown head gasket if that's what it is... Seems like the safest bet is to only go for something that wouldn't ruin everything if you end up having to do a junkyard engine swap...

This.

If you have that kind of time, buy with the plan that you'll still come out ahead if you have to swap the entire motor. Plan on it.

Try the headgasket, they're cheap, see what you find while you're in there.

Bonus points if all it REALLY needed was a headgasket, but that's rarely the case.

I worked on a car once that "just needed a headgasket."

Well, come to find out that it HAD a brand new headgasket. Unfortunately, during the headgasket replacement, an air and water line to the IAC was swapped, so the car was sucking water into the intake manifold, which might be way it was shooting water out the muffler.

Decided to just clean it out and see what happened. (After putting on another headgasket.)

Oops. Bearings washed. Spun one within 50 miles.

It's also a guarantee that he will have a very hard time selling it, so price will be very negotiable. How many people are as masochistic as we are?

http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/cto/2751704240.html

02 Durango, looks good, 850.00. That could be a candidate.

In reply to pinchvalve:

I've bought cars like that. I assume it needs a new engine when I price it, but then diagnose the actual problem after I have it. Sometimes it needed a head gasket, but most of the time they needed much more.

Usually "needs Head gasket" means "needs head (or heads) at the bare minimum". Unless it's a Subaru that's leaking coolant or a '95-'00 Chrysler 2.0L or 2.4L that's puking oil or coolant, it's usually been over-heated. Most cars now a days crack heads before the head gaskets give out.

Yeah, head went kerflooey befor the gasket on a Tracer that The Boy bought from a co-worker.

Co-worker said the temp gauge pegged when he about 5 miles from home. It died three times, but he managed to get it running again, to make the last two miles. Said the windows fogged up really bad, too. He is NOT a car guy.

When we pulled the head, the gasket was still intact, but the head had been burned through, around the exhaust valves in two cylinders, from so much excessive overheating. I've got pictures of it.

Turned out the heater core sprung a leak.

In reply to RealMiniDriver:

Please post those pictures. I like mechanical carnage.

My old Toyota 3.0 "needed a head gasket". Those piston parts in the oil pan weren't important.

pinchvalve wrote: What else could be wrong? (warped head? cracked block? massive internal damage?)

Yes, yes, and yes.

Could be all that and more. On the other hand...could just be a head gasket.

I've received (purchased, given, etc) a few cars with bad head haskets. Sometimes I knew it and bought accordingly...other times, not so much.

The reason you see so many cars with bad headgaskets on CL is the same reason you see so many bad automatic transmission cars. The labor to fix is as much as or more than the car is worth when running properly.

In my experience, there are three things that bring a car from "perfectly valuable daily driver" to "scrap value" in no time: HeadGasket issues, Automatic Transmissions, and Titles.

Add a broken driver door handle to the mix and they'll thank you for hauling it off ;).

As for "buy it cheap, fix it, sell it"...it can work if your time is not worth much to you (and that's not a criticism...it has become apparent to me that I don't value my time and/or do enjoy fixing stuff that I should best steer clear of ;)).

Clem

"A mechanic told me several months ago that I need a head gasket, but I couldn't afford it, so I drove it till it quit."

Oh...and the one to really look out for is "needs radiator" or "needs heater core."

That means, "It experienced a major overheat and probably cracked heads or blew headgaskets but either I don't know that or I'm pretending I don't."

Radiators are cheap. Head gasket labor (as in, "I don't pay myself so it's free!") is also...but if you haven't bargained for it...

ClemSparks wrote: Oh...and the one to really look out for is "needs radiator" or "needs heater core." That means, "It experienced a major overheat and probably cracked heads or blew headgaskets but either I don't know that or I'm pretending I don't." Radiators are cheap. Head gasket labor (as in, "I don't pay myself so it's free!") is also...but if you haven't bargained for it...

Yup. My 323's rad went, by the time I noticed the engine was overheating – I had just enough time to get off a major highway before it blew. Poor little thing, it still turned over, sort of, but there was very little compression. I found a used engine ($150) and the vendor, a mechanic, charged me $700 parts and labor to install it... along with a new rad. I couldn't have fixed that mess for any cheaper than that.

Yeah, I would interpret bad headgasket to mean one of two things. A running and driving car that overhears or has some other symptom, or a car that lost all the coolant and was driven until it stopped running.

saab 2.1s tend to actually blow their headgaskets too..

You also need to factor in whether that engine is known to have head gasket issues.

I've bought two nice Thunderbirds for less than $400 each because of "bad head gaskets." The 3.8 Ford six was notorious for that.

In both cases, the "professional mechanic" had already replaced them once, along with adding a slew of new parts. ...except they used the old head bolts.

I see that quite a bit- often continues to say "still runs and drives". Great. So you are going out and washing down the cylinder walls with coolant.

I always assume that to mean "needs engine".

It could mean anything from Needs headgasket" to "Engine melted and fused, needs everything"

Streetwiseguy wrote: "A mechanic told me several months ago that I need a head gasket, but I couldn't afford it, so I drove it till it quit."

that's what i was going to post, almost word for word.

cwh wrote: http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/cto/2751704240.html 02 Durango, looks good, 850.00. That could be a candidate.

It's a 4.7. Most likely overheated from a blocked radiator. Probably warped the heads up good, but a surface will fix that. put in a new rad and HG's and it would be good to go for several thousand miles....

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/head-gasket-on-96previa-sc-tips/44495/page1/

I bought this one "Needs Headgasket" months ago and am about to tackle the job. Wish me luck!

Just to insert a bit of optimism in the thread: "I'm a pessimist, and when my car started losing coolant, I automatically assumed the worst."