Head gasket advice needed

[sdcanine99]

Hello mudders,
So my daughter's 1997 4runner (6cyl) seems to have blown the head gasket. She blew a radiator hose a couple months ago driving home from college. Not sure how hot it got, but after daily driving it since, the other day it suddenly started blowing white smoke and then stalled. We towed it home and it will start (although there is occasionally a worrisome clunk from somewhere in the top of the motor upon cranking) but will use enough coolant to start over heating in about 10 minutes. An attempt to treat it with a liquid head gasket fix made no difference. Anyway, I had one guy (friend of a friend in his home garage "business") say he can replace the head gasket for $1800. A very, reputable shop (sdtrux for you San Diego guys) said, assuming it is actually the head gasket, that they are going to recommend a new head because if it's not cracked now, it probably will be in the very near future. That's more like $5k. It's a 97 2wd with 215k miles, so it's not worth that I don't think.

This is a repair that is outside my abilities (I watched a youtube). So would like to hear some opinions on what to do. I've a guy offer me $2k for it, but then she has to by a new car. Do we take a chance on just a head gasket repair and hope the head lasts? Spring for the new head at the reliable shop? Look for a used engine and have it swapped? Or maybe just take the $2k? Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks. SDCanine.

 

[cruiserbent]

Find a lower mileage used engine. Should be pretty plentiful. Sounds like it had some catastrophic damage. Trouble awaits trying to fix one if it has been way overheated.

 

[Weedhopper]

The above ^^^ Find a first class independent repair shop. They use a locator to find vehicle parts from recycling yards. My 4runner lost it's transmission and my shop found a used transmission with 200k fewer miles than my original.

There should be a ton of reasonable mileage engines out there. My shop gave me a six month warranty on the part and two years on the labor.

Repairing your existing engine would be expensive and problematic.

Edit again: you could have your engine rebuilt at a reputable machine shop. They won't remove the engine, your mechanic has to do that. The benefit is you have a zero miles engine when you are done. Depending on the condition of the rest of the truck that may be a viable idea. You might call a good machine shop and ask.