The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 235 blown head gasket

I'm wondering what would be a fair amount to pay for fixing a blown head gasket on my 1955.1 235? Quote I received was for around $1100 parts and labor but that included replacing the water pump if necessary. This is coming from a very honest tech that I've known for a long time and he said it might be cheaper depending on some of the parts he may it may not need to use. So, he gave me worst case scenario and labor was 8 hours.

Does this sound right or are there better options? I'm not sure I am technical enough or have all the right tools to tackle this myself.

If your head needs valves, guides, springs, hard seats, and resurfaced, as most do than that is about right.

I recently pulled the head on my 216, had it rebuilt then reinstalled it myself and in my case 8 hrs is about right.
The head rebuild ran around $325 and a new whole gasket set ran about $90.
I reused the valve train, water pump & thermostat but had to get new upper & lower rad hoses as well as new heater hoses, they ran about another $30-$40. 2 Gals 0f antifreeze ran another $30.
So in parts I'm probably into $450 - $500.
I've not priced a water pump but I'll estimate another $50-$70 for one. Thermostat maybe $10-$15.

If prices are similar in Texas, looks like he's built in some cushion to cover labor (which he says is a high estimate).
As Dave says above if it includes head rebuild thats in the ball park.
Good luck
Dave

Sounds fair. If $1100 is the most it will cost, I would go for it

If 'fixing' means a complete valve job as well as labor to remove and install etc, sounds like a good price.
Best of luck
Jim

I agree with Jim. As you worded it it came out as replacing a head gasket and if that is all it is then that is an atrocious amount to pay. You can DIY as it's an easy job. Even if you pull it and take it to a machine shop for valve job it shouldn't cost over $700 total. But I guess $400 labor is about right if you hire it done.

Why did it blow and are you sure it is blown? If it is blown, part of the head work may be resurfacing.

$1100 was the most it would cost. What does a shop charge an hour? $85?

$75 per hour, so 6 hours total was his worse case scenario. We are not sure if it is blown, but all symptoms point to it. I've been driving it around with no problems for a while and I took a 4 mile trip the other day and on my way home, it started overheating and I just coasted into my driveway with the motor off. Left a nice trail of antifreeze behind me about 50 yards. I had the nice milky oil and after talking with my tech, he said it is probably a blown head gasket. He said he would be very surprised if the cast iron was warped in any way. I went ahead and drained all the oil and antifreeze and did a couple oil changes after running it for a couple minutes in between to dilute the water as much as I could since I will not be fixing this immediately. I told the tech I had to figure out what I could sell to fix it, lol. Joys of owning an old pickup.

Motor still runs like a top, just can't run it for very long until I get this fixed.

Pull the plugs and look at each cylinder with a flash light. The shiny one will be where the gaskets leaking. You could also test the thermostat on a stove with a pot of water and a thermometer. But I would replace all related parts anyways. Best of luck to ya.

If you have a problem with one cylinder, the plug will probably look different then the rest.

Your tech sounds like a really honest guy to me.

I think what I am going to wind up doing is pull the head myself and take it to a shop. From what I have read, I just need to remove the rocker arms and push rods and the rest stays together. Is $40 + parts a good price for a machine shop to take the head in and do a valve job/clean it? I plan on going ahead and replacing the thermostat and water pump at the same time since I'll have it all apart anyway and will have the new gaskets on those as well from the kit.

$40 would be a good price to just clean it, and that does not include removing the valves. If anyone is just charging 40 beware, they are likely just going to clean it all assembled and say they did a valve job.
When deciding to either pay someone else to do the work or doing it your self, just remember, if its really not your thing to do mechanical work and don't know for sure what your doing, and saying nothing about your time spent. Having it done by someone else most always has some kind of warranty, doing it yourself does not. If you goof up something its on you, the shop does it it's on them.

Just an update, that price was just to clean it. I found 2 places that would clean and do a valve job. One was $85 for labor only and one was $125 labor only. I went with the $125 since it was just a couple miles from my house and the other was about an hour away. I had them replace all the valves since they were very worn and were original to the truck. It looks great and they even repainted it for me.