Blown a valve

ELYSEN_90

MEMBER
1976 ALL OTHER MAKES ALL OTHER MODELS

Hello, I have just bought my first car. I bought it for only $750 with a RWC. It's been running great until it broke down a week ago. The mechanics say that it has blown a valve and there is no compression on the 4th cylinder and that i'm going to need to pay around $1200-$1500 to get it fixed. I was wondering if you knew anything that would cost less or had any advice what to do with the car? I know that I could buy a second hand engine, but I don't know much about engines and wouldn't know whether it was in good condition or not. Thanks, elyse

1 Reply

BRUCE HUNT

MECHANIC
3,753 POSTS

Elyse,

Pretty name. What is RWC? How long did you get to drive the car?

No compression is #4. I would estimate that your mechanic is giving you a nice padded story. I am not faulting his diagnosis, but I think he is shooting you a lower than realistic figure. Rebuilding would be a questionable act. You wouldn't want to just fix the one cylinder but rebuild the entire engine.

Getting another engine and having it put in would be a tough act. Might be difficult to find an engine like that. Next, ask yourself what the car is like in other areas of operation, such as transmission, body, steering, exhaust, etc.

I might consider writing that one off as experience and move on to a different vehicle. Sorry but to any of my daughters, that would be my advice and I could do the rebuild for them and I still would say that.