juz bought a 89 240sx fastback.. after bout a week, the temp gauge goes past the "H" when i drive on surface streets, but when i hit the freeway, it goes down.. pulled over at the gas station to put water in my rad, filled my resevoir back up. started the car with the rad cap off, instead of water rushing through like its supposed to, it's shooting out like a geiser!!! ... drove it home.. checkd fluids again, they seemed fine, except my rad resevior totally empty an steam bubbling from it... i changed my water pump, the hoses an my thermostat... still does the same thing except... now there's HELLA white smoke coming from my tailpipe.. an wat looks like water dripping from it as well...

checked in at other forums... they suggested it would be the head gasket blown, warped, or a cracked head!!!! i've called around for prices for my hg to be replaced n... its about $1100 to fix... i bought the damn thing for 2g's an now i gotta spend 1100 to fix it??!?!?!?! should i juz replace the hg n hope nothing else is gone? or.. sell it n buy a new(used/new) car??

i aint too rich sooo.. saving $$$ takes a while for me.. any suggestions?:banghead:

headgaskets are like 45$...My ajusa metal turbo headgasket was 47$. Replace it yourself. I doubt the head was cracked, thats not really a problem on these cars (unless you overheated really bad). Sounds like your clutch fan might not be working if it only cools on the freeway, did you put in an elec fan?

ummm... i bought the headgasket kit which was 100$, a friend suggested i take it in to a machine shop juz so that the jobs done right... i would like to do it myself but... i dont snap-on tools or anything... juz the normal basic tools you'll find in any garage...

n there's onli one fan for the whole thing... its runnin like its supposed to, but its either 2g's on this car to get it fixed.... or i can sell it for 800 or somthing n save for another... any suggestions??

thnx again!!!

where did you buy the HG kit from? brand?

its not anything special, just a normal replacement part... bought it off of drivewire.com since i get free shipping

well... its not easy to change head gasket but u can do it...if u don't know how, it should NOT be more then $300+part to change!

^
I agree

WTF?!?!?!? NO MORE THAN $300???? r u sure?... the guys at meyer's automotive specialize in imports right... n they said it would be 13 hours of labor... which is about $1100, are they charging me too much? what if they have to shave the head a special way so that it's flat n straight juz in case it it was warped or somethin from overheating... i was told you'd needa special machine for that job n that's why it would cost so much.. hmmmm...

i've changed the water pump/thermostat by myself, think i got the mechanical knowledge for a hg replacement? i'd really rather do it myself of course

13 hours wow.. I remember doing my friends headgasket for about 8 hours (9:00am ish till about 5:00pm ish) probably cause we didn't need to machine the head. $1100 is alot man, maybe its your location? idk.. I'd say save your money with labor and wrench with a friend that knows, thats if you want to though.

The common problem I seem to notice with people replacing the HG is the startup/timing, everything else is pretty straight forward. Unless you did the HG wrong and find leaks. It's up to you, good luck.

from what ive learned you cant really shave a head to be flat after its warped, because when you torque it down now the cam will have a bow in the middle. If its not warped that bad then you can probably get away with good head studs and decent torque. I doubt you warped a head anyways, i melted a whole through my HG, cracked the head in 3 places, and still managed to have a decently straight head.

You can do this all your self, it shouldnt cost 1100$, they are trying to fuck you over.