junk it ,or...?

[squish]

I have an 86 that was my grandmother's car. Foolishly lent it to a friend. The coolant had a leak and I always had to top it off. When she was driving it, the exhaust manifold started making noise (don't know if this was part of the trouble).
Anyway, it overheated while she was driving and started spewing white smoke out the exhaust.
I have been told that the head gasket is blown and the car would cost $2500.00 to fix.
I can't afford that, but I hate to junk a nice-looking car (with sentimental value).
Any suggestions? I bought a Haynes manual, but I am not a mechanic.
Please help. Thank you.

You have to look at this 2 ways - you can junk the car and get a hundred bucks or you can try the project yourself. This is not a 2500 job, for $1200 you could have the engine pulled - rebuilt back to factory and put back in - that is where I would spend the money. Recently I had white smoke billowing out of my 65 convertible and I thought my head gaskets were blown and I was ready to rebuild the engine. In my case the modulator(vacumn controlled) in the transmission was blown and the reverse vacumn sucked transmission fluid into the carb and the thick white smoke was quite a show. Did your transmission start acting funny when the car started smoking? If so - it could be a simple transmission part. Did you drain the radiator and find oil in the water? Did you pull the dipstick and find water in the oil? Change the oil and see if there is water in it. If there is not - your head gaskets are fine. Hopefully this is enough information to go on. As far as what you should do... If the car is in overall great shape - worst case I would re-build the engine.

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Crazy about them flair birds - don't know why - just love em - a rollin piece of art work is what they are.

[DennyS]

Do a compression test with all the spark plugs out. You will find your problem. Head gaskets are 12.50 each, Head Gasket sets w/ bolt run about 85.00. Mark all the wires and vaccum lines. Put everything back in reverse order and it will be fine, 1200/2500 bull!