As I'm searching around for a car to buy on a budget, I'm seeing some turbos out there for great prices that need a head gasket. How difficult is it to repair this problem?? If I'm saving a great amount of $$ on the original purchase, I'm ok with spending a little to get something like this repaired. Would probably take it to a Z specialist here in the Dallas Area. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks
Dave

 

it takes nismo 2 hours to change a headgasket and it takes me about...43 months to so it just depends on how fast you want it done.

 

43 months? That IS a long time.

dtholmanmax, what is your extent (background) of mechanic / auto repair experience? I ask because there are VERY few "easy" head gasket jobs. The Z31 is a V6 motor, which means there are TWO heads, and usually if you are doing one head gasket, you should do the other while you are in there, as well as replace various other items like seals, the water pump, thermostat, timing belt, etc.

If you were to have a shop do it, expect a quote somewhere between $500-$2000.
Doing it yourself: $100+ & about 10-30 hours of labor.

 

and don't be cheap like my friend was >.<

HKS headgasket: 300 dollars

He replaced the head and then reused headbolts that were about 50k old

He didnt try to find out what was wrong as to why his gasket exploded.

I guess that's Toyota's 7MGE motor for you... And a majority of its drivers...

New headgasket, Headbolts... etc etc... As nismo said, 400-2000