[Brian in Tucson]

Originally Posted by Doug427

I appreciate all the input guys. This is one of those frustrating damned if you do, damned if you don't situations. The car just isn't worth enough to sink a significant amount of money into. As mentioned above, at some point that's not real difficult to reach, it's cheaper to just scrap it and buy another complete car. Yet, it's worth just enough that it's financially painful to just scrap it.

The problem is the darned labor - at my age I just don't have it in me anymore to pull the engine alone. I would have to pay to have it done. Am I wrong in assuming that it's probably $1K to $2K just in labor for an engine swap? Once the cost of either a head repair or a used engine is tossed in, you're looking at $4K at best, or $7K and up at worst for repair this car, and that's about what it's worth. Again, I'm not trying to make money off this car, but to me it's just foolish to put a repair into a car that costs equal or more to the value of that car.

I'm thinking that as suggested I'll go speak to a indy shop about diagnosing the issue, even though I can't see what else it could possibly be now other than a cracked head. I'll place a mutually agreed upon cap on the cost of the diagnosis. If they reach that cap without a diagnosis then we stop and the car gets driven as is 'till it dies and gets scrapped. There's no water in the oil at all, it may very well run for years this way, who knows.....It runs fantastically, that's the infuriating part of this. It runs strong and it doesn't overheat at all. I drove it all day long the other day in 85 degree temps and it never budged off the 180 degree mark on the temp gauge and ran perfectly.

Other than a cracked head, does anyone have any other possible causes of the intermix they can think of that I can check out on my own that can cause this? This is just so disappointing, as I do like this car.

Lastly, can anyone suggest a competent, reasonably priced Indy shop in the Houston area?

I think you're badly underestimating costs. Changing out an engine, de gunking the cooling system, replacing hoses, and a "while your in there" list is gonna be a bunch more than $2500 in just labor.