Passed on a $700 rebuilt head for my 98 Civic and gambled $90 on a junkyard one instead

Wesley Flores · 2026-10-16T19:35:04.60643+00:00

My 98 Civic had a blown head gasket and I was staring at two choices, a rebuilt head for $700 shipped or a $90 pull from a yard in Stockton with 180k on it. I went with the junkyard one because I only paid $800 for the whole car and couldn't stomach doubling that on one part. Took me two weekends to pull it, get it checked at a machine shop for $60, and bolt it back on with a $35 gasket kit. First crank it fired right up and I've put 4,000 miles on it since with no coolant loss and no white smoke. Compression came back at 175 across all four, which is honestly better than I expected from something sitting in a field for two years. Anyone else rolled the dice on a cheap yard part and had it actually work out, or did I just get lucky this time?

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Passed on a $700 rebuilt head for my 98 Civic and gambled $90 on a junkyard one instead | Cars We Bought Broken - Rigidtalk