What to Do

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Brother David

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I have a chance to buy a Mark VIII with 87k for $600. The kicker is that the left side head gasket is blown. I am a fairly good wrench, but under the hood of our cars and all of the electrical lines have me intimidated. I have rebuit complete engines in my day, but the most recent was a small block Chevy in a 1957 BelAir that I did in 1982. No EEC on those cars. If I got the Lincoln manuals would I have a chance, or am I fooling myself?
 
Go into the drivetrain forum and let yourself be the judge. There are lots of posts (Some with great pictures) of guys that took on the job. You know your abilities better than any of us.

BTW, welcome to the LOD. I'm sure you will get many more answers here in the next 24 hours.
 
Chances are, that the car got hot and warped the head and maybe the block. These engines seem to go forever if properly maintained, I have 183K on my 94 and have only replaced the alternator and waterpump and plug wires.
 
It might be easier and cheaper to just replace the engine with a good used one. At this point you don't know what the full damage to the engine might be. Bad head gaskets aren't too common on these engines.
 
You can find good used engines for about the same cost as the car. It'd be easier and possibly cheaper just to swap engines.
 
Don't waste your time trying to swap head gaskets.

I work at a shop and I "warn" customers everytime they want to have a job like this done. You're going to spend all this time(labor) removing the head to install a new gasket, and what happends when you send the head to get pressure checked for cracks and it comes back BAD. Now you've spend all this money(time for you) to remove the head and now you need a New/Used cylinder head, which in our case is going to be more expensive than a used engine. So....money/time wasted on a headgasket job and you could be driving your $600 car already if you would have just swapped in a used engine :)

Get the car its WAY worth it NOT running with that kinda mileage. Talk to JAMIE on here(check the for sale forums) and get yourself an engine from him for under $1000 and enjoy your new ride!

Make sure you replace all the "maintanence" items while you're swapping the engine out, it would also be smart to replace the oil pan/rocker cover/oil filter adapter gaskets too.
 
1 more vote for "dont take the heads off".

you'll come out alot cheaper swapping another engine into the car than trying to repair the current engine.

Just the cam timing alone can make that job more of a pain in the butt/WALLET than it's worth.

you can either seek out an engine that has already been pulled from a car, or you can seek out another donor car, such as I did.

I got another car for 500.00 and put the engine and trans into my car.
Usually you can find a donor car cheaper than you can find an engine, as in many cases, the "cost of the engine" goes up.. after they have been removed from a donor car.
Example there are a couple of donor cars on ebay that have either bad suspension, or bad transmissions.. either example would make a good "engine donor car".

putting headgaskets on is going to cost no less than 1000.00, and that is only true if you haven't warped or cracked a head or the block. in that case.. all bets are off... and you'd be right back to square 1.. looking for a donor engine.
 
$600 for 87k? Thats a steal no matter the state of the power plant. I agree with all above.

But are we sure its a head gasket. It probably is, but I have read about so few actually going. It seems more often than not this little scenario plays out:

The oil filter adapter gasket leaks, this causes two things. First you can get oil in the coolant which can be seen in the reservoir tank. Generally this is a sign, on most cars, that the a head gasket is blow or a 90 year old lady put oil directly into the tank and washer fluid in the gas... Anyway, its happens like it did in my 95. Mechanic says blow head gasket after seeing that. To make it worse, the gasket can leak enough to let air into the water system as it cools (coolant shrinks when cooling, pulls air in) and eventually you get enough air in the crossover tube to cause high temperatures or overheating.

I dont want to get your hopes up. But for $600 you could walk away with a perfectly fine car after replacing a $30 gasket. If its not it, you find a cheap engine and plop that sucker in and still walk away with a good deal.
 
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