BAD NEWS for me!, My 914 is down.... Options

[Joseph Mills]

I've been waiting all afternoon to go down and pick my car up from the garage. When I took it in, they were behind in their work and it's taken a few weeks to get it fixed. I took it in to have a header leak fixed that had just become noticeable, and on the way the clutch cable snapped, so I also had the cable replaced. Couldn't wait to get it back.

I called to make double sure it was ready. There was a hesitation on the other end of the line, and then I was told that my header leak is actually a blown head gasket and will cost 1400.00 to fix! IF the head is still okay! WTF! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)
This is a very reliable and honest shop. They said most of it is labor.

How serious is a blown head gasket? I was told the headwork would be about 80.00 to true the head up. Does this sound right? Then they said, unless things were really bad and they had to replace the entire head. Not sure what that would be. I probably put about twenty miles on the car after I noticed the leak. Once before this happened and it actually was a loose header. Could I have done much damage in this length of time? Will both head gaskets have to be replaced?

At first I thought, well okay, I don't really have the funds for this, so I'll do part of the work myself. Of course, then I remembered, unfortunately, oh yeah, I'm not a mechanic! I've never "dropped" a motor in my life, much less "pulled" a head! This is very depressing! Right now I'm just kinda stunned. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)