Chevrolet Repair: Astro Van Head Gasket, chevy astrovan, head gasket

Question
About 3 months ago I purchased a '89 Chevy Astrovan as a utility vehicle. Had a complete inspection done and outside some minor problems the van was in great shape at 287,000KM (180,000 Miles). Did some simple repairs, i.e. brakes & front end work. Directly after a recent oil change it appears I blew the head gasket. I have yet to do a compression test to confirm this but all the tell tale signs are existent. Assuming it is the gasket that's toast I made some quick calls to see what the repair bill would be. Replace the gaskets and machine the heads came out to $1800CAD or about $1500USD. Seems absurd to me since you can get the entire engine for about third of that cost and since I bought the van for less than half of that. At that price the repair is a wash, so considering my options (running the vehicle until death or paying absurd amounts of money), I'm curious to know if this repair job is feasible for a hobby mechanic? Can I do this myself?

Answer
With that amount of mileage on the vehicle, It would be a total waste of money to invest in the vehicle.

If you spend the money to machine the heads you will have NOTHING but problems with the valves, springs, seals, valve guides etc. etc. I doubt that any machine shop will guarantte the maching of the heads.

You go ahead and spend all this money on the heads and this will increase the combustion chamber pressure and it's a 50/50 gamble that the rings on the pistons will start pumping oil out the exhaust.

Personally, I would junk the whole project.


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