1998 Honda Civic Head Blown, new engine needed?

KATIESMITH2340

MEMBER
1998 HONDA CIVIC
4 CYL
FWD
MANUAL
188,000 MILES

My son drove his beater out of town ( against my wishes) and the head blew. He apparently drove it longer with the damage and the shop he limped to is telling us he needs a whole new engine. This is because if the shop just replaces the head then in 10000 miles or so the pistons could break. The new engine (38K mi) would have 12 mo. Warranty, the head would not, etc. Etc

is this true? A new engine will cost $2300 and just the head alone $800. It's an around town car for a college student. I want him to have something he can use locally. I dont' have the $2300 and wonder if it's prudent to put that much in a car this old. He will graduate in 2-3 years and buy his own at that point. OTOH I don't want to throw away a car I paid $3000 for with 175K 18 mos ago. Please advise! I don't have a picture, and not alot of details since the car is still 2 hrs. Out of town. I would have to tow it 2 hrs. Back here too, if this shop does not repair.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

Do you have a community college with an Automotive program? We were always looking for live work such as this. I'm not sure I follow the reasoning about the pistons unless this is some kind of Honda thing. High mileage doesn't scare most mechanics either. My rusty trusty '88 Grand Caravan has 378,000 miles and is still going strong. A '98 model to me is a new car!

Repairs will cost a lot less through an Automotive training program, but the trade-off is it could take weeks to get the car back, and in our case, we only did engine work once a year. During other courses, we would always stick to the subject being studied. To do unrelated work was to take potential work away from the local businesses that hired our graduates. To tatally rebuild a Chrysler 3.0L V-6 with student labor cost only $300.00 to put things in perspective. That was about five years ago.

Caradiodoc