My g/f and I bought an immaculate '04 Honda Odyssey with 136k miles on it for a tad under 5k a few months ago. It drove flawlessly when we bought it, but we soon discovered it had an appetite for coolant, and if you didn't appease it, it would overheat.
Looking through old service records, the previous owner had several bouts of overheating which was never fixed, then they traded the car in. Now we're the proud, happy owners of a Honda with a bad head gasket.
I pulled both heads off, and the cylinder nearest the battery (front driver's side) had been ingesting coolant, the gasket was visibly bad in this area. All other cylinders looked okay.
I took both heads to a machine shop which a buddy from work recommended, thinking I'd have them check it for flatness and be on my way. They quoted $30 to check for flatness, $130 if they have to mill the head(s). -- I got the surprise of my life when they called me today and said that they vacuum checked the heads/valves, and the heads tested poorly. The recommend a valve regrind to the tune of $410, and that's if they don't have to replace any valves. They didn't mention the condition of the valve guides.
I brought them my own valve seals to be replaced, so they'll be replacing seals as part of that price (labor only), along with cleaning and checking the heads. Is this a worthwhile investment toward this vehicle? I checked compression before pulling the heads, and all cylinders were fantastic; IIRC, all were between 200-210. I was under the impression that Honda heads rarely needed work beyond just making sure the heads weren't warped because of a bad overheat, and that I could throw new headgaskets in and be back on the road.
Already I've invested about $350 in parts (timing belt, water pump, full head gasket set, valve seals, etc.), and now another $410 just in machine shop labor? This is starting to approach engine rebuild territory, considering that I'm doing all the labor other than the machine shop.
Is this place trying to take me for a ride, or is the expense justified? I've never had work done at a machine shop, so I'm a novice in this area. I've done all my own wrenching on my cars other than that. Should I call around for price comparisons? Ideally I'd like to get another 5 years out of this vehicle, which would mean another 100k or so.
Any help, input, suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated!
Looking through old service records, the previous owner had several bouts of overheating which was never fixed, then they traded the car in. Now we're the proud, happy owners of a Honda with a bad head gasket.
I pulled both heads off, and the cylinder nearest the battery (front driver's side) had been ingesting coolant, the gasket was visibly bad in this area. All other cylinders looked okay.
I took both heads to a machine shop which a buddy from work recommended, thinking I'd have them check it for flatness and be on my way. They quoted $30 to check for flatness, $130 if they have to mill the head(s). -- I got the surprise of my life when they called me today and said that they vacuum checked the heads/valves, and the heads tested poorly. The recommend a valve regrind to the tune of $410, and that's if they don't have to replace any valves. They didn't mention the condition of the valve guides.
I brought them my own valve seals to be replaced, so they'll be replacing seals as part of that price (labor only), along with cleaning and checking the heads. Is this a worthwhile investment toward this vehicle? I checked compression before pulling the heads, and all cylinders were fantastic; IIRC, all were between 200-210. I was under the impression that Honda heads rarely needed work beyond just making sure the heads weren't warped because of a bad overheat, and that I could throw new headgaskets in and be back on the road.
Already I've invested about $350 in parts (timing belt, water pump, full head gasket set, valve seals, etc.), and now another $410 just in machine shop labor? This is starting to approach engine rebuild territory, considering that I'm doing all the labor other than the machine shop.
Is this place trying to take me for a ride, or is the expense justified? I've never had work done at a machine shop, so I'm a novice in this area. I've done all my own wrenching on my cars other than that. Should I call around for price comparisons? Ideally I'd like to get another 5 years out of this vehicle, which would mean another 100k or so.
Any help, input, suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated!