Blown Head Gasket Repair Cost: Fix It, Swap It or Sell It

Short answer: Repairing a blown head gasket costs about $1,624 to $3,386 at a shop on two current estimates, and labor is the largest part of the bill. It is worth fixing when the rest of the engine is healthy and the car is worth clearly more than the repair when running. Get a block test or leak-down test before you pay anyone. If the numbers do not work, price a used engine from a yard or sell the car as it is.

Last checked: November 1, 2026. Repair estimates are from RepairPal and AutoNation Mobile Service. Symptoms and tests are from NAPA and Bumper. Engine prices are from the Pull-A-Part and Pick Your Part lists for their Nashville yards. Repair figures are estimates and vary by engine.

What are the signs of a blown head gasket?

What you notice	What it can point to
White exhaust smoke that continues after warm-up	Coolant burning in a cylinder. Normal cold-start vapor clears in a minute or two
Coolant level drops with no puddle	Coolant being lost inside the engine
Overheating, bubbles in the overflow tank	Combustion gas in the cooling system
Frothy or milky oil, or a mayonnaise-like film in the overflow tank	Coolant and oil mixing
Misfire, especially at startup	Coolant in a cylinder, or a leak between two cylinders
Oil or coolant at the seam of the head and block	An external gasket leak or, NAPA notes, a cracked block

No single sign proves it. Blue smoke can come from worn rings or valve seals, and a stuck thermostat can overheat an engine on its own. If the temperature gauge is climbing, shut the engine off and have the car towed. Bumper warns that driving on a blown gasket speeds up the damage and that coolant in a cylinder can hydrolock the engine.

How do you confirm it before paying for a repair?

Ask a shop for one of these tests and get the result in writing.

Test	What it tells you
Block test (combustion leak test)	A blue test fluid turns yellow-green if combustion gas is in the coolant
Compression test	Low readings, especially in two cylinders side by side, suggest a breach
Leak-down test	Pressurizes a cylinder to find where the air escapes

Also ask whether the engine overheated badly. That decides whether you are buying a gasket job or a bigger one.

A video from the ScannerDanner channel. The title says it shows a quick head gasket test with a chemical block tester. Published October 2023.

What does head gasket repair cost now?

Source	Total	Labor	Parts
RepairPal, updated September 3, 2026	$2,572 to $3,386	$1,669 to $2,449	$903 to $937
AutoNation Mobile Service, undated, read November 1, 2026	$1,624 to $1,979	$909 to $1,147	$715 to $832

Treat both as estimates. RepairPal leaves out taxes and fees and does not factor in your location. AutoNation assumes the engine is otherwise sound and says the bill "could quickly climb to $3,000 or more" with related engine problems. A V6 or V8 has two heads, so get a quote on your exact engine.

Why is the labor the expensive part?

Bumper notes that the gasket itself is cheap and most of the cost is the labor to remove the head. A mechanic has to take apart the top of the engine to reach it, then put it all back. The head may also need work: a warped head adds resurfacing or replacement cost, and you often do not know until it is off. Ask for a written estimate with a separate line for machine work.

Sealer in a bottle is the cheap alternative. AutoNation calls it "never a permanent fix" and says it will not work if the leak began after the engine overheated. If you use it, tell the next owner.

Is it worth fixing a blown head gasket?

Find out what the car is worth running first, at its real mileage and condition.

Option	Rough cost	Makes sense when	Main risk
Repair the gasket	$1,624 to $3,386, more if the head is warped	Caught early, and a sound car you plan to keep	Overheating damage shows up after you pay
Used engine from a yard	About $770 to $3,380 before fluids, gaskets and towing	Your engine is badly damaged, but the body and transmission are good	You do not know the donor engine's history
Sell it as it is	No repair cost	The repair is more than about half the running value	A low offer if you only ask one buyer

The half-of-value line is our rule of thumb. A paid-off car you trust can be worth more to you than its market price, because replacing it costs more than fixing it.

What does a used engine from a yard actually cost?

Two self-service chains posted these prices for their Nashville yards on November 1, 2026. Prices differ by yard and exclude local taxes.

Chain and part	Part	Refundable core	Total shown
Pull-A-Part, engine without accessories	$192.99, plus a $23.55 environmental and services fee	$52.00	$268.54, with a 30-day warranty
Pick Your Part, engine assembly, no accessories	$233.00	$75.00	$377.90, including an optional $69.90 90-day guarantee

At these yards you remove the engine yourself, so ask what the yard allows for lifting before you go. For installation, AutoNation Mobile Service gives $500 to $3,000 for engine replacement in general. Add that to the two totals and you get the range in the table above.

So a used engine is not automatically cheaper than a gasket job once a shop is involved. It wins when your own engine is too damaged to save. Our used, rebuilt and remanufactured engine prices cover the other choices, the core charge explainer tells you how to get the deposit back, and replacing a blown engine from a junkyard walks through the swap.

What if you sell it as it is?

Tell buyers the truth about the engine, ask whether towing is included, and get more than one offer. We do not quote a payout here because it depends on the car, its weight and local scrap prices. Start with selling a car with a blown engine, then check what a junk car is worth and how much junkyards pay for cars. Before the tow truck comes, go through what to remove before scrapping a car.

Common questions

U-Pull-It.com is an independent directory. We are not affiliated with the businesses named here. Hours, fees, prices and ratings come from their websites and public listings and can change, so call before you go.