[spy2520]

My car is slowly dying, i believe the head gasket is the problem. I keep getting a misfire SES light on cylinder #1 and the local dealership says the cylinder #5 compression is 20lbs lower than the rest. I don't have much money, the dealership gave me an estimate of $4836 for a new engine and 6 fuel injectors. $2100 was the price paid for the car a while ago. It is a 97 taurus gl vulcan. My car decided to die when i brought it to college, all the way up in bridgeport, ct from maryland. Does anyone know if the head gasket is a terminal illness that cannot be fixed? If fixing the head gasket costs less than buying another taurus (or two) then that is an option i wish to explore. Like i said, the car isn't dead yet.
Someone help, please.



edit - i have found the answers i need, disregard this post.

 

[MrBooMY]

I know you said to disregaurd this post, but I've put head gastkets on my Vulcan and it wasn't that bad of a job. The hardest part was getting the wiring harness off and out of the way, the rest was fairly easy. The parts to do the job aren't but about 120 bucks. 20 lbs is a tad high but still an acceptable difference on the cyl pressure as long as they are within about 10% of each other. My car ran SO much better after I replaced the head gaskets. It runs better NOW with 136,000 miles on it, than it did when I got it at 59.738 miles.

 

[Guest]

You can get a new Vulcan from a junkyard or on ebay for like $300 and if you got a good local mechanic to install it you could have it taken care of pretty darn cheap.

 

[spridget]

what he said....

Vulcan engine sell on ebay pretty cheap. Although I have seen a few sellers list them for about ~$900... most sell for around $300. Shipping is usually $250-300 around the country.