Not if both the salvage yard and the mechanic are respected people. You have been driving it. So it must drive fine. You won't get much for a car with a salvage title as you know. But you will get close to nothing if it doesn't run.

 

Did you like the car before it blew the head gasket? If so, why not just keep it?
Look at it this way, if you took it someplace with 70k miles on it and a "rebuilt title" to trade it in on another Crossfire with only 40k miles, it would probably cost you alot more than $2k.
I don't think the 3.2 V6 engine in the Crossfire, (and probably a million Mercedes Benz cars) has a reputation for blowing head gaskets.
No reason these cars won't do 200 to 300k miles with proper maintenance.
Good Luck

 

yea, I guess I liked it pretty good before this issue. Granted it's small and isn't in very new condition, but it's a pretty good driving car. Needs new tires too, but that's another issue I guess. Ugh... 70k miles... so annoying!

 

best of luck, there are a few engines on ebay for even cheaper than the price you were quoted, might want to shop around and see if any of them are local or offer free shipping...

when you buy a salvaged title car, you're pretty much in it until it explodes because you probably won't get your money out of it... have you had it long enough that you feel you got your $6000 out of it? if you're in need of a vehicle and don't have a lot of $$ to spend your options seem to be spend $2000 to get the Crossfire back up and running or buy a $2000 car and try to sell off the Crossfire for parts to try and recoup your original investment

 

You're in a tough spot but if you're going to replace the engine, make sure you deal with a yard that will take the engine back for whatever reason. I've seen plenty of "great deal" motors come and look terrible because they were from a fire car, flood car or some other crap car. If they're willing to send it to a shop and take it back, it means you probably won't have an issue with it because at that point, they don't want to eat what margin they make on an engine sending out another one.

Also, shop rate for something like this is around 10 hours depending on what needs to be swapped between the two engines so unless your mechanic is moonlighting, $600 sounds pretty cheap and very rushed... which translates to possible problems later on down the road. Another thing that may not be taken into account is the cooling system needs to be thoroughly flushed.

Another thing is that what ever caused the issue needs to be determined or you may be doing this a second time. Since it was in an accident, it may have overheated before it was repaired but you should really make sure that is what happened and not that there is some other reason.

If you were in the Chicago area, I have a couple very low mileage engines that were pulled from cars for V8 swaps and I'd be happy to do the labor as well but I think you're far enough away that it wouldn't make sense and even shipping could be an issue.

Take care

 

I am going to assure this is not the white limited roadster I keep seeing in Reykjavík but a $6k CF would indicate some problems could be expected.
More input is required than the mechanic says....
Did the car overheat. How did you determine something was wrong. How far did you drive it. "Shot" is a term more suited to bullet wounds than engine parts. Terms like cracked, broken, scored cary more weight.

My thought would be to look for justification NOT to replace the head gasket(s) but I have know idea of this cost. If it's more than 700 I think I would go with the used engine.

$2k out the door for a 40k mile engine seems like a good price. Rebuilding the existing engine would be a no no.

 

rcompart, I appreciate the insight and the offers despite the fact that it probably doesn't make sense. The thing about the $600 is that I live in a place where everything is cheap (good and bad), so this price wouldn't be someone rushing, but rather, someone that's just charging a lot less per hour than you'd expect. He's been recommended from a good friend and I feel really comfortable with him. He has a pretty nice shop (not a shadetree mech).

I guess I'm going to be better off on the 1k engine. I was told the car was tboned and they do offer a 6 month warranty on some of them, I'll certainly check on that as well.

 

If you can get a used motor with a warrantee installed for under 3k I say go for it.
It would be a hard sell with a blown motor and salvage title. No sence giving it away.
You can't buy a cool running car for 3k.
I would fix it.
Head problems are not common on these motors.
If you find a low mileage motor it was probably someone's weekend toy.
Most crossfire owners take care of them.
My limited only had 24,000 miles on it when a tree fell on it. Stuff happens.

 

tree fell on it ey.... that'd be nice...

 

I was pretty upset by it. I loved that car. After fighting with the ins. Company I laid out the extra cash from my pocket and bought a members srt6.
All is right with the world again.

 

yea, I'd love an srt6. Granted, after this ordeal, I'm having a lot of reservations about this car. I changed the breather covers about a month after I bought it, needed new gaskets, oil was leaking out...

 

I bought my 04 in 2005. When it was declared a total loss in 2012 I thought long and hard on what to replace it with.
The only car that was in my price range that hit all my happy spots was another crossfire.

Only you will know when you are done with it.
If the cost was the same I wouldn't Mind a viper or sl65.
Lol

 

If you have reservations about the car then you will never be satisfied, get a Honda or something.

You buy a wreck and expect it to be A1, that ain't the way it works. You took a gamble and lost.

 

onehundred, you don't have to be offended. I'm not knocking the car, I'm just saying I've had bad luck.... geez :/

 

I'm not offended at all, I'm just saying that you purchased a lemon. It may be fixable with an engine swap so no big deal.

Buying any car has risks, but buying a salvage titled car ups the risk considerably.

 

Hey kid. You have to remember. On this forum you have all kinds of personalities and occupations. Young and old. Some kids shoe stringing their 1st car to some
ole' geezers with cars as their hobby. I have a pair of nice cars. Get the best of care. Cars are what you make of them. For some, they are just transportation. For others, they are their prize possessions. Fix the damn car already. ;

 

just dropped mine off due to oil smell.
i looked at paperwork last night and it said gaskets covered.
guess we'll see how good this wrap warranty is.

of course im sure this dealer will try to blame it on the NW cold air intake and say it violated the warranty...

 

I think I'd get a second opinion about the heads, make sure you really need a new engine. You said the mechanic told you it needed new heads but you didn't say what was wrong other than it was shot. I'd want to know exactly what was "shot".

 

So if there is an oil leakage on the left side of the engine( when you stand in front of the car) where the coils are, does it mean head gasket?
All the coils on the left side are covered with oil as I figured out last night when I was trying to clean the engine for the first time since I bought it

 

See here: https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...over-leak.html