Marcus,
I live in Des Moines and have substantial experience replacing head gaskets
(10 years in Dodge dealership). Unfortunatly this is not a good time for me
to pick up any additional work. My suggestion to your friend would be to call
around. $1200 to do a head gasket on a 4-cyl seems to me a little steep. The
last set I did was on my wife's '95 Ford Windstar van, 3.8-v6. Ford wanted
$1500 to replace the head gaskets, I called around and found a place that
would do it for $800. At that time I could have the vehicle down for a while,
so I spent $240 on parts and did the job myself. Drake Garage is a good
place, smaller privatly owned shop, experianced mechanics, nice people to work
with. Phone number - (515) 255-6159. (no financial interest)
Thanks,
Paul Mostrom
'77 Spitfire 1500
'80 Ford F-100 (Triumph Support Vehicle)
'Black holes, where God divided by zero......'
-----Original Message-----
From: Marcus Schaper [mailto:mschaper@gvpt.umd.edu]
Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 1:24 PM
To: <"spit"
Cc: ddrechsler@worldbank.org
Subject: Non LBC - friend needs help in Des Moines, Iowa
Listers,
sorry about this off-topic posting. A friend needs help from a good soul in
the Des Moines, Iowa area to troubleshoot/ help repairing his overheated '87
Pontiac 6000.
Here is what happened: Dennis, a good friend of mine from Germany who is doing
an internship in Washington, visited some friends in Iowa over Christmas.
On the way there, one of his radiator hoses broke and his car overheated (he
didn't know that the failure of the heating system is a REALLY BAD symptom
...). He took it to a local shop to diagnose/repair it. They fixed the hose
for $160 and estimated $1200 for a head gasket/head repair.
Since the car is barely worth that much and he is on a very tight budget
(non-paid internship), he decided to fix it himself. However, he had to be
back in DC on December 27th. His problem now is that he has a return ticket to
Des Moines for January 7th, but has never replaced a head gasket himself
before and does not know if he will need only the gasket or if the head is
cracked, too.
Now, here comes the part he needs help for: To decide whether to repair or
junk the car, he will need to know whether the head is cracked or not, before
he flies back to Iowa.
Is there anyone out there who could pull the head for him (2.5L, 4cyl) and see
what needs to be done sometime during the next week? Also, if he decides to
repair it, assistance from someone who has done a head gasket before would be
helpful. The car is located in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines. Of course,
Dennis will reimburse you for the time you spend helping him.
BTW, the Pontiac is his Triumph Support vehicle for a '76 Spit he just
acquired.
Cheers,
Marcus
|