Balance
 

Life is all about balance...case in point:

Good: My promotion kicked in yesterday. I've worked very hard over the past 9 months, bringing innovation into a department that was rather static. The bosses have been impressed...even the legal department gave us a pat on the back today for one of our new procedures. I'm now doing pretty well income-wise, having doubled it in just over a year.

Bad: My wonderful little car blew its head gasket sometime over the weekend. $900-1200 to fix. We're still recovering from 2 years of little income. We can't afford a new car right now, but I can afford to fix the car--in April. Did I mention that my registration for it is due next month? Oh, and though I am an hourly employee, they just cut overtime--no OT unless approved.

Fuck...

good
you are eligible for the"inside deal"

it's not what you know, it's WHO YOU KNOW

You said "little car" ?. I'll assume it's no bigger than 6 cylinders.
You need one head gasket, one inlet manifold gasket, one outlet manifold gasket, a torque wrench (hire one for a half day).
Don't be daunted by all the clutter, it's one of the simplest jobs under the hood.
Tag stuff if you don't think you'll remember the order to reverse the process. The torque settings for each gasket will be on the packet (the gaskets come as a set- about $130us i'm guessing)
Seriously mate, $1200 leaves a lot of room for error if you should happen to screw up. (you'd have to be a moron)
If you have an overhead belt or chain driven camshaft make sure you secure it before you remove the head. Buy the workshop manual online.
My first time was a 4 cylinder datsun. no prior knowledge and that baby was up and running 3 hours later and cost $160us.
While you're at it you may as well give it a valve grind. Adds $10 and a couple of hours to the overall project but it's worth it while the head's off.

Novice, everything you said was true, although I don't know what kind of anti-pollution shit you have over there. But I don't think you know whom you're talking to. ;)

Heh, yeah some people and mechanical stuff eh. Like mixing water and ...whatever that stuff is that reacts violently to water.
Still, $1200us is daylight freakin' robbery.

Yeah...you're talking to the mechanical retard here. I couldn't do that shit if it saved my life. Not to mention, it's a Ford side-mounted 4-cylinder...pain in the ass to work on.

I don't know if it has been a serious problem with the cars overall, but this is the 4th Escort we've had that's blown a head gasket...they've all occurred between 80K and 90K miles. The three previous ones were older ones--an '83, and '84 and an '85. The current one is a '94.

The price itself is fairly reasonable, all things considered. In the process of replacing the gasket, they do a full tune-up...which the car needs anyway. Some other items as well. These guys have been working on my cars since I moved here--they're very reasonable, have never gouged me on anything and have never made a repair that was unnecessary.

I'm torn at the moment...I'm wondering how useful it is to fix it in the end, but it's still in very good shape overall.

I'll need to ponder it some more...

It just seems unreasonable to me as I could get an escort engine fully recon'd for that amount of money. But, hey, that's the 'Lucky Country' for ya.

I had three Mercury Lynxes in the 80's...they were just Escorts with a different badge. Two blew head gaskets. One caught fire when the oil cap became dislodged and jammed the electric radiator cooling fan, and the wiring burned behind the dash. Fun.

Escorts in the 80's were allegedly a matter of not "if" they would blow a head gasket, but rather "when". Aluminum heads, small engines running at high temps...you can do the math.

I don't know about the 90's jobbies, but I thought they were reworked from the ground up.

A little more good: $400 is on its way to me from the IRS.

You have to figure out what it's worth fixed vs what LJ will stick.... er... give you for it busted.

I'm leaning more towards getting it fixed at the moment.

I'm going to take it up to my mechanic next week for a good once and twice-over...to see if anything else is seriously wrong with it. I'll see what he says and go from there. I still have some time to think about it...I don't have to make a concrete decision until the end of next month.

I just went through an episode two weeks ago with my Ford. Thought it was the head gasket but lucky for me it was the water pump. I know how scary it is dealing with a major car repair. My thoughts are with you.

Is a new car really out of the question?
 

Syc-

I totaled my old Tempo last July. Thought I would never be able to afford anything worth driving. Turns out, i got a new Ford Focus ZX3 for under $10k. 6.5% interest (as my credit is not the best), but still the payments are under $200 for five years. Oh, and I did have to put $1k down, but still.

If it's not possible, it's not possbile, but there are decent cars out there for a decent price, even new.

If the payment didn't kill me, the car insurance would.

Philadelphia has some of the highest car insurance prices around--I pay $77 a month for minimum coverage. I have no tickets, no accidents, and my credit is good. This is a '94 Escort LX wagon we're talking about here...if I were still in St. Louis, I would be paying about $30 a month.

Maybe in another year, we could swing it. But I really need to pay down my debt before I try to take on a car payment.

inevitable, but still freakin funny

just have faith in the lord, syc. jesus loves you. he will provide. hallelujah.



can i get an amen?