replacing head gasket

[hipopp]

after several months of playing up every now and then my GQ head gasket has gone. Anyone know the approximate cost of getting it replaced? my local mechanic has quoted $2000. Does this sound aroundabout right? tb42e....

[97_gq_lwb]

It's hard to say if he does the job using genuine or top quality parts coolant oil filters etc has the head crack tested machined and cleaned replaces the head bolts and cleans the block properly it probably isn't a bad price for a mechanic as it does consume some time .
Still sounds expensive to me though $2000 for a head job .

[billyj]

just did mine last sept, all up cast me $1100 that was with myself and a mechanic mate doing the work,

$300- mechanic
$130- torque wrench (decided to buy my own)
$250 ish crack test and surface head, including welding up the 2 rear water galleries(common for gasket to fail there), new valve stem seals also inc vrs gasket set and head bolts
$150 new plugs, leads, dist cap, rotor button etc
$70 new head bolts( 2nd set snapped a new bolt after forgetting the washer and it bottomed in the thread)
$200 ish 20l oil(flushed it through a couple of times)
$50 coolant

thats about it from memory all up it took us about 4hrs to strip it and then about 6 to re assemble(in saying that i pulled the extractors, batteries and radiator out for cleaning and more work space which wasnt really nessasary)

also depends on if any cracks, bad valves etc are found when the head is off