Leedom blew a head gasket on his wife's Santa Fe
 

I talked to Leedom and while driving today the head gasket blew on his wife's Hyundai Santa Fe. Firestone wanted something like $4700 or some insane amount to fix it.

Here are the questions in no particular order:
1) How much do you think just the parts will be assuming no labor? I think it's a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe V6.
2) How likely is it that the head is warped?

Looks like a gasket kit is around $200 with a quick look. I don't know what the book time is for labor, maybe kdracer73 can look it up.

Impossible to know about head warping. IF the gasket blew from overeating there's a fair chance. Then you're talking machining and that's where shit gets expensive. But even in that case, $4,700 is from outer space.

$100 for machine work from Pacific Engine.

Shannon has a 05 Santa Fe 3.5L V6 and according to Firestone the labor for the head work is 24hrs. I priced out the items they recommended replacing and it came to about $575 from AutoZone. I will hit up Ed's this week though. While we are at it I think we are going to do the water pump and Timing belt. That gets us up to about $800. Ron and I are going to probably do the work. Pacific will be working on the heads for sure. The car is worth about $7K and there was no way I was going to spend about $5K on it. This shit sucks!

The heads are aluminum, check them! Chances are thy are warped, but probably not much.

They are? That is what Ron was asking and I was going to do some research. I plan on taking them Pacific Engine to have them go through them. We are going to do the timing belt, water pump, thermostat and anything else we need to while we are in there.

We can check them to see but for how cheap Pacific Engine will do them for it's worth it to just have them done.

I don't think any imports use anything but aluminum for heads these days.

According to wikapedia, it uses a cast iron block and aluminum heads.

Yep aluminum heads, Dick will just surface them as minimally as possible to ensure you dont have issues, also if ed's ends up being on the pricey side check with Dick. Occasionally he has connections that yield dirt cheap prices. Like $65 for single piece chromoly pushrods.

These don't have pushrods, thats old ass technology! These are OHV.

Yes, I understand, this was just a example of how he has dirt cheap connects. Like a complete cylinder head for a 2.3l ford, assembled, new for $300

Santa Fe is now taking up real estate on Ron's driveway. I will get all the parts together and we will be working on pretty much every means of transport we own. Ron opened the door too much!

Santa Fe
F-150
Vespa

Sorry Ron. Thank you soooo much though!

So I am guessing all went well with AAA and the tow.

Yup. My phone was about to die so I called from my parent's house and by the time we got over to Firestone the tow truck was pulling in as well. They were there like 10 minutes after I called at most. They dropped it off at Ron's and now I just need to obtain parts.

Just for fun check out rockauto.com I got a good deal on some stuff.

Will do.

Rockauto.com is where I got the new tank for the Explorer and they were by far the cheapest.

They're usually the cheapest, talk to Ed about their prices and he'll usually come pretty close, just tell him you're from motorgen.

Rockauto is the best. My girlfriend works at the Ford dealer in temecula and she can't get parts much cheaper than RockAuto at her cost... unless its a ford.

The estimate was right...

2 - Right 2231139501 $58.34
2 - Left 2231139502 $58.34


Labor Skill
Level Mfg.
Cylinder Head Gasket
Replace warranty standard
Right Bank B 7.8 22.8
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make All Necessary Adjustments.

Left Bank B 7.4 22.8
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make All Necessary Adjustments.


Both Banks B 8.1 24.8
Includes: Remove Carbon And Make All Necessary Adjustments.

From Chilton.....

Remove the engine. (NICE!!)
For additional information, refer to intake manifold. See: Intake Manifold
Remove the cables from the spark plugs. The cables should be removed by holding the boot portion.
Remove the ignition coil.

Remove the upper and lower timing belt cover.

Remove the timing belt and camshaft sprockets.
Remove the heat protector and exhaust manifold assembly.
Remove the coolant pump pulley and head cover.
Remove the intake and exhaust camshaft.

Remove the cylinder head assembly. The cylinder head bolts should be removed using the 12 mm socket, in two or three steps.
Clean the gasket pieces from the cylinder block top surface and cylinder head bottom surface. NOTE: Make sure that fragments from the gasket do not fall in the engine.

What? We have to remove the engine to do this? What?

That wouldn't be so uncommon for a FWD car.

Cheap to buy expensive to fix.

They gotta steal your money somehow!

I'm sure you can do it without removing the engine, but it's probably a million times easier to do it out of the car.

I know with my GF's 1998 mercury mystique you have to drop the motor to get the rear head off, no space to work, you can bearly change the spark plugs.


Guess what's wrong with my gf's car? Ya i'm not going to fix it and she doesn't have the money to have it fixed. Anyone want to buy a 1998 mercury mystique lol

Pick a Parts will take it!

Ya and give me 400$ the car blue books for 2.6k and I was asking 1200 would take 1000. I thought 50% off was a good deal for someone that wanted to flip it. But no takers yet. Grr I hate fwd cars

Throw a GPS in it. I got an email at work, a GPS unit's battery exploded and burnt the interior of the car up. I'm sure it would total out the thing.

Parts ordered:
Head Gasket Set
Head Bolt Set
Radiator
Radiators Hoses (upper and lower)
Thermostat w/ seal
Water Pump w/ gasket
Timing Belt Set
Serp. Belts
Spark Plugs
Coolant (2gal)

Way lower than Firestone wanted. Checked out Rock Auto and was not going to worry about a few $$ here and there so I went with Ed's Auto Parts. I will be picking them up on my way out to Ron's next Saturday. Then the "fun" begins.

Who did you talk to at Ed's?

If you need an extra pair of hands I should be free to help you guys out.

You never text me back foo

Yes I did it just took 6 hours lol

I would not turn down an extra set of hands. Just keep them off my wife's headlights! :sm_laughing:

Saturday the 23rd is the first planned day. I will be getting to Ed's around 8 so I should be at Ron's by 9-9:30. Since I already paid for everything it should just be a pick-up and leave.

Don't remember... I talked to 2 guys because I called twice. They were both cool and I forgot to mention timing belt and water pump and they asked me if I needed those too. It is just so easy to call a place and they know what you need or might need and don't ask you a million retarded questions. Their prices are great too!!

They really are the best parts store i've dealt with, they're also practically family.

Just buy an aluminum straight edge and put it on them and see if they warped. Machine shops can take off a lot if they are... but if its an OHC motor make sure the cams dont rock.

Dodge wanted 4800 to do my moms car, needless to say I took a few days off and did it. The prices they charge are unconscionable. And they have the nerve to pay their mechanics less than $20 an hour. Assholes.

I already talked to Dick. its $30 to surface each head, remember they're MLS head gaskets and the smoother the surface the less of a chance they will blow again.