1998 Honda Accord save me money, please!

I have a '98 accord LX and the 'check engine' light has come on sporadically over the life of the car and i've always been able to get whatever problem it has been fixed with minimal effort and money. The inspection is due next month and the light has come on again. When I brought the car to autozone, they gave me a free computer diagnostic readout that said there was something wrong with the vtec (something apparently specific to honda). I brought the car to the dealership to have it confirmed and after their inspection, told me that it was not the vtec but rather an issue of low pressure in cylinder #2. The possibile problems they said were as follows: 1 - a cracked gasket which would run me about $2,000, 2 - a bad cylinder pump which would run me closer to $3,000, or 3 - a cracked head which would be more than $4,000. None of these options sounds fun to me but despite the fact that all of them are more expensive than the car is worth, I don't see the value in investing that kind of money, or for that matter can I afford them or a new car at the present time. Now i'm no mechanic to be sure, but i've had a previous car blow a gasket seal and there was all sorts of billowing smoke out of the tailpipe accompanied by grinding noises from under the hood. I am getting neither of those from my honda so I don't THINK it could be anything involving a crack in the gasket or the head. I've asked a few mechanic friends hypothetical questions about the problem and one suggested it may be a bad spring in the second cyclinder which could cause the same problem. I just want to keep my car on the road since hondas are known to go well over the milage I have now and frankly I like the car. Please help me. I want to fix the problem but I dont want to spend $1,000+ to have someone tear apart the entire engine block to find that it was a simple spring replacement.