MELLO*SOS
04-06-2004, 02:41 PM
Hello all,
So after installing a "new" JY radiator into my 24E, I started the car with the radiator cap off, only to be greeted with a 12" geyser :(. In addition to this, the car is blowing white smoke during idle, and make a tremendous cloud while revving > 3k. Obviously there is a major problem with the head gasket (or something more serious).
My dilemma is that I bought the car for about a grand with quite a few minor cosmetic issues (interior, body, etc). Thanks to ebay I've solved almost all of them for just a few hundred (less than $200) -- but with the recent cooling system problems it looks like I'll have to spend a lot more to get it back on the road and/or sold. To install a new head gasket seems to be a PITA, and I don't have a garage or a shop to do it in. On top of that the head should be taken somewhere and examined, plus who knows what else is wrong with the engine now. All this will cost time and money, and since the engine + chassis already has 204k miles on it, I can see this snowballing (what else is broken or will break during R&R?).
So I've listed the car for sale on craigslist for $1500 as-is. I know it most likely won't sell for that much, but I would like to recoup at least my initial investment. The other option I am investigating is keeping the car a little longer and swapping the engine for a 91-94 KA24DE. This looks like it will cost about $1000, which is about what I paid for the thing to begin with.
If it was yours, would you A) sell it and try to buy the 91-94 KA24DE with grey or black interior that you should have waited for and bought in the first place, or B) pour money into this car, replacing either head gasket + whatever else or swapping the engine?
The sr20 swap at ~$5k is out of the question right now.
Thanks for your creative input :)
So after installing a "new" JY radiator into my 24E, I started the car with the radiator cap off, only to be greeted with a 12" geyser :(. In addition to this, the car is blowing white smoke during idle, and make a tremendous cloud while revving > 3k. Obviously there is a major problem with the head gasket (or something more serious).
My dilemma is that I bought the car for about a grand with quite a few minor cosmetic issues (interior, body, etc). Thanks to ebay I've solved almost all of them for just a few hundred (less than $200) -- but with the recent cooling system problems it looks like I'll have to spend a lot more to get it back on the road and/or sold. To install a new head gasket seems to be a PITA, and I don't have a garage or a shop to do it in. On top of that the head should be taken somewhere and examined, plus who knows what else is wrong with the engine now. All this will cost time and money, and since the engine + chassis already has 204k miles on it, I can see this snowballing (what else is broken or will break during R&R?).
So I've listed the car for sale on craigslist for $1500 as-is. I know it most likely won't sell for that much, but I would like to recoup at least my initial investment. The other option I am investigating is keeping the car a little longer and swapping the engine for a 91-94 KA24DE. This looks like it will cost about $1000, which is about what I paid for the thing to begin with.
If it was yours, would you A) sell it and try to buy the 91-94 KA24DE with grey or black interior that you should have waited for and bought in the first place, or B) pour money into this car, replacing either head gasket + whatever else or swapping the engine?
The sr20 swap at ~$5k is out of the question right now.
Thanks for your creative input :)