I have a 1998 F-150, with a perfect body and paint. Drives great, with $700 worth of new tires, but......it has a blown head gasket on the V6! The previous owner had "rebuilt" the engine about 20k miles before I bought it and I put about 20K more on it. His work lacked the appearance of good craftsmanship, such as brush painted, yellow valve covers and rattle can paint on the block, after it was back in the truck. Like it sits, it's not worth much, but in everyone's opinion, is it worth it to drop in a new $2000 engine and keep the truck forever? I'm 66. I have 3 other vehicles and a utility trailer if I need to haul something, but I really miss having a truck.

I could pull the engine and rebuild it for less money, but it has a total of 260K miles, and I'm not real sure of the condition of everything else inside, so I'm not sure of the rebuild expenses. I'm not leaning toward a junkyard engine, since you never really know what you're getting.

Just looking for options.

Thanks,
John

 

If it only has a blown head gasket, why replace the entire engine? Are there more problems other than paint that you hadn't mentioned, or are you worried about the quality of the PO's rebuild? If you're handy enough to rebuild the one that's in there, maybe it'd be worth it to get the junkyard engine and rebuild that at your own pace, then when it's ready, swap them out

 

I'm a little worried about the quality of the previous rebuild. The engine ran fine, didn't use oil, and sounded ok. But I'm thinking that since it's full of oil/water mix, I don't want to go to the extra trouble of flushing this engine. A junkyard engine will be $200-300, then the added costs of parts needed for the rebuild could easily run the total costs to over $1000.

I can get a remanufactured long block, with 3 year/unlimited mile warranty, for $1900 and be done in a day or two.

My other option is to keep borrowing my son-in-law's truck when I have to. He usually comes with it to help with the lifting, so I don't scratch the bed.