97 t-bird, burned it=

my son,s 97 t-bird,v/8 ran hot. by the time he could safely pull over it was too late. he said the temp needle was max for quite a while. mechanic says maybe cracked head or blown head gasket. car has 160,000 miles. car already needed heater core and some ball joint work . otherwise it,s nice with leather and alloys,etc. what do you guys recommend in this case?

See what's involved in fixing it. If you can do the work yourself, I would say its worth fixing.

First you have to find out why it overheated. It could be as simple as a thermostat or plugged radiator. A radiator shop can test the flow rate and you can test the thermostat by putting it in a pan of boiling water to see if it opens. Your mechanic should be able to tell you if combustion gases are getting into the cooling system (head or gasket problem). Is there water in the oil? The oil will turn milky white. In the Tech help thread is a post on how to replace the heater core.

my son,s 97 t-bird,v/8 ran hot. ...
mechanic says maybe cracked head or blown head gasket. car has 160,000 miles. car already needed heater core and some ball joint work . otherwise it,s nice with leather and alloys,etc.
what do you guys recommend in this case?
Sell it to me for $600.00. :D

jr tigerstar= make it $1000. and you,ll may have a deal. car is in mandeville ,la. . across the lake from new orleans. it was not flooded in katrina. father-in-law was original owner. all miles on the car are interstate commmuter. very clean car.i think he was not a smoker and only wore clean clothes in the car. a/c works.car color is like pearl white, original paint. i think windows are tinted. never wrecked.

Yank that old NPI engine, and install a 2002 Explorer engine! Decent HP boost, plus 80 lbs weight savings over the stocker. And yes, it needs some mods, but it's almost a direct swap.