Reseal my engine or buy rebuilt?

[Jim]

I have a dealer estimate of about $2k for a complete engine
reseal...all seals and gaskets, including the head gasket (which
has a small coolant leak). About 1600 of this is labor.

An independent Subaru mechanic
says the head gasket is so labor intensive he recommends
a rebuilt engine It's hard to believe this would be less than
repairing mine, which has 107K miles, but I am wondering
if there is good reason to spend the moneyt for a rebuilt
engine vs rebuilding mine?

 

[J999w]

What kind of car?

jw

 

[Jim]

What kind of car?

jw

sorry...its a 1997 legacy brighton wagon with the 2.2L engine.

 

[Rick Courtright]

reseal...all seals and gaskets, including the head gasket (which
has a small coolant leak). About 1600 of this is labor.

Hi,

How badly are things leaking? If it's just a tiny coolant leak (no
overheating, serious loss of coolant, etc.), you may be able to put a
half tube of AlumaSeal (the powder, not the liquid) in the radiator and
get a few miles out of it for about $4 or so. That's taken care of most
of the "weeping" coolant leak in my engine (that my Subie parts guy
tells me is "common") for well over 100k miles. I still have to add
coolant every couple of weeks to top it up (about 1/2"), but I can buy a
LOT of coolant for $2k!

If things ARE more serious, I'd think about shopping for prices. $1600
for labor, even at the local rate of $80/hr, comes out to 20 hours on my
calculator. Someone's working even slower than I do. Or working the flat
rate book awfully hard! I'd ask for a breakdown on those labor charges
before committing!

Rick

 

[CW]

That's insane! Better to do a motor swap.

 

[Edward Hayes]

1600 dollars sounds insane to me. I would go to www.soobymods.com and see
what other are paying. Did you buy your car new; drive it sensibly and
follow a good maintenance program?? If so: you should easily get another
50,000 miles without much if any engine problems. Funny how easy someone can
spend 100 dollars of my money but if you ask them for 1 dollar you'd think
you were putting then in the poor house. eddie

 

[2 Stroke]

A "re-seal" is a waste of time and money. It's a ploy to charge you a
lot of money without having to guarantee anything. If your engine
fails a month later, they can simply point to the fact that the engine
was old.

Anecdotal truth: If you spend any time on automotive dicsussion
boards, or talking to real mechanics, you will NEVER hear anybody say,
"I just re-sealed my engine".

The previous advice about powdered stop leak is a much better idea
than the re-seal. If it doesn't work, and you have to spend major
dollars on the car, get a rebuilt engine or have yours rebuilt. The
money spent on a re-seal won't make the eventual rebuild any less
expensive. You will never recover any of that money. A rebuilt
engine, OTOH, adds value and longevity to the car.

just my $.02,
Steve

===================================================

 

[Jim]

Hi,

How badly are things leaking? If it's just a tiny coolant leak (no
overheating, serious loss of coolant, etc.), you may be able to put a
half tube of AlumaSeal (the powder, not the liquid) in the radiator and
get a few miles out of it for about $4 or so. That's taken care of most
of the "weeping" coolant leak in my engine (that my Subie parts guy
tells me is "common") for well over 100k miles. I still have to add
coolant every couple of weeks to top it up (about 1/2"), but I can buy a
LOT of coolant for $2k!

If things ARE more serious, I'd think about shopping for prices. $1600
for labor, even at the local rate of $80/hr, comes out to 20 hours on my
calculator. Someone's working even slower than I do. Or working the flat
rate book awfully hard! I'd ask for a breakdown on those labor charges
before committing!

Rick

so far, i've not had to add any coolant. there's just some coolant
on the underside of the engine that is coming from the head gasket
says the Subaru dealer.

meanwhile, i'm also hoping to slow or stop the oil leaks with one of
the additives that restores seals. it's been in about 600 miles and
i think that might be helping. again...so far...it's more a smelly
and occasionally smoky nuisance. haven't had to add oil
between changes.

the labor was broken down and totalled about 18 hours I believe.
I assume this wsa from the flat rate book but maybe bot accounting
for overlap.

thanks,
Jim

 

[Edward Hayes]

By overlap you mean charging one for removing a part to get to a part and
then charging again to remove the same part to get to another???

 

[Jim]

Yes.

By overlap you mean charging one for removing a part to get to a part and
then charging again to remove the same part to get to another???

 

[Rick Courtright]

Yes.

I'd be hesitant to use a mechanic who charges like that...

Most decent mechanics I've known can beat the flat rate book by
somewhere from a little to a LOT. In my "real life" I'm a tax
consultant, and a couple of my clients are dealer mechanics--both tell
me they should double the book rate in their shops, in other words, do
the work in half the time the book says. While an independent might not
be so quick, since he may be working on more kinds of cars, etc., he
still shouldn't be overlapping charges. Unless you just like to toss
money his way...

Are you a mechanically inclined person with time and a place to work on
the car? I'm thinking $1600 will buy a lot of tools!

Rick

 

[Jim]

So would I I guess I should at least get a look at a flat rate
manual.

I'd be hesitant to use a mechanic who charges like that...

Most decent mechanics I've known can beat the flat rate book by
somewhere from a little to a LOT. In my "real life" I'm a tax
consultant, and a couple of my clients are dealer mechanics--both tell
me they should double the book rate in their shops, in other words, do
the work in half the time the book says. While an independent might not
be so quick, since he may be working on more kinds of cars, etc., he
still shouldn't be overlapping charges. Unless you just like to toss
money his way...

Nope. On this car I change my oil and that's about it. I did some
more stuff on much older cars, but never involving pulling the engine.
I might have the skill, but not the patience. :-(