Sorta related here, especially for James...
As I was toiling furiously through a head gasket job on my truck recently, my neighbour (who knows nothing about cars) complained to me that the head gasket in his 94 Civic DX was shot. His car wouldn't even start it was so bad. I had tried to help him previously, but the engine was not healthy. He told me he was having the dealership throw a complete replacement engine in for him that had only 50,000 km on it.
I laffed my nuts off (inside) thinking how much this was gonna cost him, while I grunted and groaned through the same job on my truck, replacement engines for which are simply not available.
His car was on the road three days later and my truck was still days away from being road-ready.
He came over one day and said something to the effect of, "Gee, must be nice to be able to do that yourself". I said, "Yeah, it takes time, but it's worth it with the money saved and the satisfaction of doing a good job yourself." I then asked him how much he got soaked for the replacement engine, installed by the Honda dealership. $850 Cdn 8O :evil: .
Why do useless knobs like him fall into great deals like that? The job I did cost me about $500 Cdn in parts plus head shaving alone and way too many hours of my time. Even if they pulled his old engine and installed the new one in record time, he still got the engine for absolutely peanuts. Plus his engine comes with a 6 month warranty, which my DIY job definitely does not.
I've decided that was the last head gasket job I'm gonna do - apparently there are better options, if you have a horseshoe up your a$$.
This is why, for the engine in question above, I say $700 US is a felony.
