Well i think my head gasket went today. The truck heated up real fast and real hot on the way to work. Only about 5 mins down the road. I pulled over to find coolant overflowing the reservoir box and boiling in the radiator. When i took the oil fill cap off it had white milky residue in it. Anyway it seems to be the head gasket and i was wondering if anyone new what a good mechanic would charge to do the job? I don't have the time to do it myself or the desire. Thanks

 

We had the head gasket replaced on our Dakot a couple months back, be looking around $400 - $700.

 

on the 6 it should be a do it yourself deal

 

be better off doin it yourself..i just went through all that with mine but..its most likely a cracked head..mine overheated with out me knowing untill it was too late..the machine shop that done the head i replaced the old with told me its very common for a 300 inline to have a cracked head after overheating too bad..said its rare for the head gasket to go before the head cracks
its not hard at all to do the head yourself & there's really no way of telling if its the head gasket or cracked head untill you pull it

 

If you brought it to our shop it would cost right around $700. The gasket set lists for $110 and it calls for 7.1 hours of labor for an EFI engine. Our estimator doesn't go back far enough on these to check labor on a carbed engine.

 

If you could do the headgasket yourself it shouldn't take you anymore than a couple of hours with all the right tools. I know i got mine off, replaced the gasket and torqued it back down in about 45 minutes. Though mine was out of the engine bay.

Hope your head isn't cracked, thats when it gets expensive.

 

the Felpro head gasket set costs around 40.00 at autozone,oreillys & advance auto..includes all gaskets needed ,,head gasket ..intake/exhaust.thermostat,& even the rocker cover gasket plus several other little gaskets..doesnt take long to just do the head gasket if thats what it turns out to be..only way to tell is pull the head..just make sure when you put the head back on to make sure the head bolt thread holes & bolts are clean & also a new set of head bolts are a wise choice..i just ran a tap through thread holes in the block to make the bolts wouldnt bottom out when torquing & when i checked the bolts through the head while off & marked the threads sticking out, it seemed a little too close for comfort if they were gonna bottom out before torqued so i ground an 1/8'th inch off of each bolt end to make sure they wasnt bottoming out..like i said for an amature best to just pay a few bucks for new bolts..ford head bolts are commonly known as stretching once torqued & then bottom out when reusing unless you do the grinding off on the ends of bolts
as you can see the shop price difference to actual cost of you doing it yourself..quite a difference..40.00 worth of gaskets..maybe 10.00 in new antifreeze & whatever you pay for an oil filter & oil to get rid of all that oil/water mixture it has in it now
even if it is the head cracked..you have to pull the head anyhow..so i'd go ahead & get the gasket set..pull the head & see whats going on..i got a used 77 head for 30.00 off of a guy & a machine shop done the valves & checked everything for 60.00

 

Well i talked to my mech. and they said it would be around $1200.... ouch!! I'm going to shop around if the head gasket is the problem. He wasn't sure without seeing the truck himself. One thing that makes me wonder it is the head gasket is that there is no water in the oil. The dipstick is clean. I just saw a little milky white gew on the bottom of the oil fill cap. The mech. thought that might be a pcv valve issue. Is there anything else i can check be for towing it to the mech. I changed the thermostat 2-3 years ago and the water pump last year. the truck has been consuming antifreeze slowly for awhile with no visible signs of leaks. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

1200.00 to change a head gasket?...for that price you get about a whole crate engine...........thats ALOT of labor charges after about at most 50.00 worth of materials costs....

 

Have you done a compression check on each cylinder yet? I have also heard that you can hook an air compressor up to each individual spark plug hole and take the radiator cap off and see if bubbles form there. Thats all I can think of without taking anything apart. Hope that helps.

 

If you think any mechanic worth a crap is going to just give him parts you are sadly mistaken. Mechanics have bills to pay too.

 

so your mechanic has not seen the truck and said it needs a headgasket and now wants $1200!

another guy on 87 to 96 trucks says his head gsket is around $800 or $900 and that sounds too much but closer to the right price.

thank god i know how to work on vehicles myself.