Nissan Repair: camshaft, valve cover gasket, head gasket

Question
QUESTION: My girlfriends 1995 altima overheated. shop says needs new camshaft heads.
Total would be $1500.00. Is that right? is it worth replacing with 169K?

ANSWER: Hi Myles -

This sounds weird to me. I would take a second opinion on this. To what stage did the car overheat? Head gasket blown? Head warped? Is the vehicle running at all?

Please get back to me -
mahalo and aloha
calvin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: it overheated on her driving on the highway. she pulled over, let it rest a while,
drove it to a gas station to let it cool. a half hour later, she filled the radiator
with water and drove home. i replaced the spark plug valve seals and the valve
cover gasket due to oil on the plugs and wires. Now the cars shakes when at a
red light.

Answer
Hi Myles -

Next step is to take a compression test. Could be either the head gasket or warped head, depending on the nature of the results of the test. Looks like it overheated to the point where it blew the head gasket.

If the head got warped, they can resurface.

Let me know -
aloha
calvin