Overhaulin'

How much to repair head gasket?

Looking at a dirt cheap car for sale, it's a Vauxhall Corsa 54 plate SXi 1.2l petrol Gonna do a HPI check soon etc But the head gasket has gone what sorta prices am I looking at to fix/replace it etc or am I best droping in a new engine Thanks in advance

Public Comments

1. head gaskets are a lot cheaper than a new engine maybe $100 to have it done about $40 to do yourself
2. If it was easy and cheap, somebody would have done it already. Check with local mechanics who know that car. They may say it's not worth fixing. There's no guarantee that if the gasket is replaced the engine won't have other major problems that resulted from the circumstances that led to the head gasket failure.
3. You have to get it reskimmed then put the new head gasket on, and tested so that it has no leaks, they will do it at the same time, be sure to go to somewhere reputable, it is aliminium, and it warps, so it needs to be level to put a new gasket on, talking a couple of hundred, no need for new engine, unless it has problems too.
4. Well...I honestly have no idea if it's easy to work on this particular ecotec (what with the 3 cylinders and all). I'm guessing it's derived from the 3 cylinder that was in the geo metro which is an easy car to work on. However, this is a timing chain engine (the metro had a timing belt) so it can be a little tricky to work on because they're generally used with interference engines. The truth is that you can flub the timing with a non-interference engine and do ZERO damage, you can just fish until the car runs right. But if you mess up the timing on an interference engine and you'll damage the internals. So...this isn't a job for you to do. In the UK I'd assume you're going to pay close to 400 pounds to replace the head gasket due to this issue. Is it worth it? I don't know.
5. You can get the head gasket kit on e-bay for about £40 skim and pressure test about £60 labour about £200 but double the total cost if the cylinder head needs to be replaced. and find out what caused the head to overheat as repairing this could end up bringing the cost up to over the cost of a new engine and repairing the cause is a must as the head will go again within a few weeks
6. I'd bargain on a new engine. In fact I'd walk away. Cheap cars are cheap for a reason and it rarely makes sense buying one that needs that kind of work because by the time you've bought the car and paid a garage to fix the one fault you know about you could have bought a decent example of the car. And then you find out about all the faults you didn't know about because the car couldn't be driven. Might be worth £500, but I still wouldn't touch it.
7. New engine not required. New gasket fitted and the head skimmed will cost around £400 at a good inndependent garage
8. By the time you fix the head gasket issue it won't be a dirt cheap car, for sure. The bad head gasket says bad things about the way the car has been maintained, too. I like cars with over 80K miles because at 50K it is hard to tell how they have been treated and at 100K it is hard to hide. This one is hard to hide. Walk away and keep looking.
9. when you say the head gasket is gone...you mean the whole head??or just the head gasket?cos there is a big difference in the two-head is the entire block[if you can say],and the gasket is the piece of sheet[rubber,or cork]that lies inbetween...basically,is it leaking oil??
10. Hi This is a chain driven engine which adds slightly to the length of the job, & thus the cost. There is also one more issue. You have no idea if the car was allowed to badly overheat when the head gasket went, which means that you have no idea of exactly how much damage has been done to the alloy head & engine. Unless you're prepared for the worst, walk away. Regards Geordie