Hi guys - and Seasons Greetings!

Car: 94 Del Sol Si (stock) D16Z6/auto trans, 160,000 miles, bought 3 months ago for $1,600. Has rough body, no rust, good A/C, excellent brakes and trans. Driven on weekends to come home to Jacksonville from U of FL at Gainesville.

The car is my college student Godsons, bought because he likes my Del Sols. He is rich but financially prudent (a cheap SOB). He's brilliant, a inexperienced mechanic and a nice guy. Car repair training is my gift to him.

So far using my tools and guidance he has replaced spark plugs, a water pump, timing belt, cam & crank seals, thermostat, rear calipers and interior door handles. He did this with my oversight and tools. He follows directions well and is very quick to grasp ideas and repair techniques

Issue is chocolate-milk-shake looking oil. Car runs rough and loses water. I think a blown head gasket is likely. He is willing to work on the car at my place, with my tools.

Considering cost, materials and time required do I recommend:
a JDM engine or
replace head gasket or
buy a different car?

 

I'll assume the engine was severely overheated, so replace it or the entire car.

 

it's a blown headgasket. remove cylinder head, resurface head and block, install oem head gasket, 2 oil changes, coolant flush, good as new.

 

Unfortunately, this is definitely a possibility. Since you only bought it 3 months ago, there's a high change that the previous owner fucked it up royally, used some stop-leak **** just to sell the car, and dumped it on the first sucker he could find, which was, unfortunately, you.

Pull the head. Have it professionally cleaned, pressure tested, and decked. Check the block deck for trueness. It will probably be warped. If it isn't, you got lucky, and should remove it and completely overhaul it, including a hydrosonic cleaning to get any **** out of the coolant channels. If it is, you got unlucky, and should remove it and completely overhaul it, including a hydrosonic cleaning to get any **** out of the coolant channels. Once you've done that, replace the radiator to get rid of any residual **** in that, and all of your coolant lines for the same reason.

See what I'm getting at, here? It's time for a complete rebuild under the hood.

 

Not checking the block deck would be asking for trouble.

 

It should be, but for the average DIY/shade-tree/back yard mechanic, it unfortunately isn't. For severely overheated engines, that 99% becomes more like 75%.

 

For the novice, they wouldn't know. So when we tell them to do a headgasket job, that is all they will do. Even the backyard mechanic would not touch the block deck or the head.