I’ve got shitty luck when it comes to cars. I got the right head gaskets for the Subaru today, and tonight, as I was cleaning the old cylinder head in preparation for installing it with a new gasket, I noticed that the head was cracked in two places. I checked it out pretty closely right after I pulled the head off the engine, but I was only looking at the walls between the combustion chambers and the water holes around the outside. It turns out that the head is cracked between the valves on each side. I suspect that the cylinder head on the other side of the engine has the same problem, but I haven’t pulled it off yet to find out–I really don’t care at this point.
I only have two choices right now–I can either buy new or rebuilt heads, either of which will be pretty expensive, or I can just buy a new car and leave the Subaru alone for now and fix it as I can afford it. I still really like that car, but I need something to drive right now, and my truck isn’t much of a grocery-getter. I need a 4-door, and one that gets good gas mileage, since I’ll be taking it to work every so often. I think we’re going to talk to Traci’s uncle Bob tomorrow about buying something from his used-car dealership, though I really don’t want to go into even more credit card debt. I guess that’s the real dilemma I face anyway, because I’d have to buy new heads with my credit card as well. The only issue I really care about is time.