Phoenix people please help /Please welcome me to the blown head gasket club (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 6, 2006
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76
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1,146
Location
Westwood, Ca/Ixtapa MX/Ahwatukee, Az
My Wife is in town and we planned a nice getaway to Sedona/Jerome We left early this morning and made our way up the 17 towards Sedona. at the offramp to the 260 there was a bit of a hesitation which I thought nothing of. At the left on Finnie Flat the truck bucked & a cloud of billowing white doom wafted from my tail pipe. I turned back towards the freeway & an AM PM where I confirmed my fear. Over the next 7 hours ( it had taken 2 to get there I stopped no less than 10 times and no more than 15 adding water.) There were several accidents which conspired to lengthen the ordeal. My hope @ this point is some kind person knows of a good mechanic that is near 50th & Chandler, will accept parts from Dan & can do it quick & well. I have no other cars here as I am not truly an Arizonan & my cars are in Morelia & L.A. so I'll be renting a car tomorrow. Thanks
 
Try Vern at Toy Specilists in Mesa 480-969-3320
 
Talk to Jason At Truck Werks, he may be able to squeeze ya in. 480-838-1166. Let him know you heard about him here.
 
Thiel Automotive at 56th(?) S. of Ray in Chandler. His shop is S of Home Depot on 56th. He is a former Tempe Toyota tech...He rebuilt my 90 4Runner using my parts.
 
Vern turned mine around very quickly and for a reasonable price. He's not cheap but he's not as expensive as the dealers and he'll only do what needs to be done to get it fixed right. Mine blew back in March and he got me in the next business day (Monday) and would have had it ready to go home Thurday if I didn't have him waiting on the replacement silicon blue PHH kit from http://www.1fzfephh.com/ . I had him do some additional preventative maintenance while he was in there, but it was at my request and not him trying to up-sell me. Depending on how much the head repair costs you'll likely get out of there between $1700-$2000.

Vern is a quirkey ol fella, but I was very happy with the quality of his work and his customer service.

I'd also suggest you DO NOT drive it any more until it has been repaired. I know you were a long way from home when it happened but you may have caused yourself additional damage that is more expensive than what it would have cost to have it towed back to PHX.

Ed
 
Vern turned mine around very quickly and for a reasonable price. He's not cheap but he's not as expensive as the dealers and he'll only do what needs to be done to get it fixed right. Mine blew back in March and he got me in the next business day (Monday) and would have had it ready to go home Thurday if I didn't have him waiting on the replacement silicon blue PHH kit from http://www.1fzfephh.com/ . I had him do some additional preventative maintenance while he was in there, but it was at my request and not him trying to up-sell me. Depending on how much the head repair costs you'll likely get out of there between $1700-$2000.

Vern is a quirkey ol fella, but I was very happy with the quality of his work and his customer service.

I'd also suggest you DO NOT drive it any more until it has been repaired. I know you were a long way from home when it happened but you may have caused yourself additional damage that is more expensive than what it would have cost to have it towed back to PHX.

Ed
Great to hear as I dropped it off with him @9:30 this morning. He is also doing the water pump & a few other pm's (@ my request) He quoted 2k-2100. I was very careful not to overheat it and asked him before I drove it there. He said as long as I keep it cool (-16 miles all freeway) That it was already damaged as far as it was going to be. The odd thing is it never got hot (prior) and got the same mileage back as it has been getting. Thanks!
 
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Just saw the damage. Gasket is original & is blown in front of 1 & at the side of 6

Per Vern seems like it was leaking for a little while before it went completely. Head is on it's way to the machine shop for it's diagnosis
 
At least it's moving forward quickly.
 
yup hopefully the machine shop can turn it around quickly I hate this pos rental.
 
a little Coors Light also goes along way in making Vern happy... :)
 
:D Thanks for the tip!
 
Went by this morning to see where the progress was at, head had just returned was not badly damaged but has all new valves & was planed. He did not know exactly how much was removed nor exactly how much the machine shop cost.

He is talking about Tuesday or Wednesday. :( I hate the Cobalt.
 
Sorry to hear about the HG. I just did mine, on my own terms. It took almost 2 weeks, the head shop was backed-up and he had it for 8 days. I had him mill off 10 thousandths for a little more compression. While the head was away, cleaned up and smoothed out everything else (top-o-the block/pistons, injectors, yada yada) She runs purty smooth now and no more waiting for what happened to you.
 
Curious, how many miles on your 94? Just seeing how much time I got left or how lucky I have been so far.
 
I am just relieved there was no major head damage. I am also happy the block seemed ok & that there will hopefully be improvement in my gas mileage as he said the valves were not performing perfectly so I should see an MPG improvement. My truck has 165,xxx Vern said the HG was original.
 
It got a full valve job a bit over 600 so I have a new head. I asked him to find out how much was removed to see if I am getting free ponies :)
 
I'm probably gonna do mine soon as preventive maintaince, before it lets loose on me on the trail somewhere
 
So after a week & a day & new radiator I got the news that the motor is great! YEA!!!! get her back in the morning! :D
 

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