I was driving my '93 MV from southern California to the S.F. Bay area, where I intended to leave it with in-laws while I headed off to New Zealand for a year. It was a hot (*very* hot) day, but the van had recently had a major tune, was performing wonderfully as usual, and I plowed through the Central Valley with the AC on. After a lengthy lunch break (when the engine should have cooled down a bit), I hit the road again. But within 10 minutes the AC faded, I lost considerable power, and I barely made it off the highway before a t-valve in the cooling system blew and -- as I would later learn -- the head was irreparably damaged.
My boys loved the ride in the tow truck and the unexpected Sunday (or course) evening in a hotel pool, but I hated the news the next day that it would be several days and several hundred dollars, at a minimum. After several trans-Pacific phone calls and nearly 8 weeks, I hear that it'll be $2200-$2500 for a new head, piston rings, etc. For an engine that already has 150,000 miles on it.
I'm trying to decide whether to a) repair it, b) buy and have installed a newer engine ("81,000 miles, compression: 175") from an unknown dismantler I found on the web, for about the same total price, or c) sell it for parts and buy a newer (but still used) one when I return to the States in a year. Any suggestions?
