Head Problems

[leowyatt]

So our Laguna died rather spectacularly the other week and we've discovered that one of the cambelt pulleys disintegrated taking the belt with it and valves, etc.

We've been quoted a small fortune to repair but the garage suggest if I can fit a new head myself they'll time it up for me so my question to you mechanics is:

How expensive and difficult is it to fit a new head to an engine and is it a cost effect job or is it worth just getting rid of the car?

[Justsomebloke]

What's the car worth ? Before it blew that is.

[leowyatt]

Well probably the same price as the repairs :/

[Justsomebloke]

Well the price of the repairs could vary considerably depending on who you know, Either way though I'd bin the car off mate & take the loss as in my old git opinion units are never the same once split. You could spend a grand getting it right to end up with what you had before :/
You could with a little know how do it for maybe a couple of hundred quid with just the price of the skimming & pressure testing & a few new valves depending on how many are bent. This would be called a Bodge though & once fired up again would probably rattle like an old Nissan truck :/
If you yourself are up for spending a grand I'd buy summit new then at least you get the new car buzz for your grand not the I've just been bent over & shafted feeling.
What has the garage quoted you ? 600 quid'ish or the dreaded Grand. :(

[leowyatt]

well between 600-800. They are a garage I trust so I know they aren't ripping me off. Currently I'm just going to stick it on the carpark at work and we'll mull it over.

[Jonny69]

Sorry to hear that, what a pain.

Depends how much a new head is really. The headgasket itself is probably going to be £35-£50.

However... we have a Scenic and EVERYTHING is a nightmare to work on and I wouldn't attempt it myself, purely going on my past experience trying to do things myself on the car. It's a lot of dismantling and you'll almost certainly come across some seized bolts, you'll probably find something you can't get undone and round off or shear, so I'd be inclined to get the garage to do it.

Toolswise you'll need spanners, socket set, torque wrench and a set of Torx drivers because for some reason Renault thought it was a good idea to use them on all the serviceable bits instead of Posi like everyone else does.

[Kitten]

I think we're on a hiding to nothing with this one. Suspected it was a scrap job, looking more like it all the time :(

[lostkat]

How much would they charge to fit a replacement engine? I've found one on Ebay for £100. Might not quite be the right one, but I doubt you'd pay much over £200 for a decent 2nd hand engine.

[leowyatt]

Garage said 2nd hand engine to fit would be around £300 but they'd suggest changing the belt on the replacement engine anyway

[Burble]

Changing the cambelt on a replacement engine shouldn't be too expensive. The belts normally come as part of a kit with new tensioners and so on plus with the engine being out of the car there would be much easier access to the relevant bits.

[Jonny69]

Just remembered... Renault engines need to have the cambelt changed every 80K miles or every 5 years, whichever comes around first.