How Much Should A New Head Gasket Job Cost?

Reader Question

Hello again Mr. Davis,

In your opinion, how long should an experienced mechanic take to replace & install a new head gasket set, and what would a fair price be?

Warm Regards,

Denise

Hey there Denise,

That is a super tricky question and really depends on the make and model of the vehicle, how much regular maintenance has been done, what is the labor rate of the shop performing the repair etc. etc.

I would say that $1,000 would be a fair MINIMUM charge for replacing a fairly typical head gasket on an American or Japanese 4 cylinder engine and $1500 minimum for a 6 or 8 cylinder gas engine.

The price escalates rather quickly because so many other parts and pieces of the engine have to be removed to get access to the head gaskets. Since the mechanic has already removed all these extra parts (and you have already paid the labor to remove it) now is a great time to replace them….at an additional cost of course.

Some of the parts I am talking about are:

• Spark plugs and spark plug wires
• Water pump
• Belts and hoses
• Radiator (might be a good time to replace or have professionally cleaned)
• Thermostat
• Tensioners and pulleys

The main cause of head gasket failure is due to engine overheating. You have to find the culprit of the overheating…or you will just damage the new head gasket.

I always send the radiator out for cleaning or just replace it altogether when I do a head gasket replacement. I also send the cylinder heads to a machine shop and have a valve job done. This gives my customer a much better job and usually only costs $200 or so more to do this at this time.

Blessings,

Austin Davis