1998 expy with blown head gasket or crack/warp

[reality]

hi all,
I'm newly joined to the forum, but have been searching it for a while now

I've got a 98 expedition EB fresh from the shop diag with a leak in the #5 cyl. been overheating and losing coolant and all of the usual signs of a bad head gasket.

so took it to the shop to have them confirm that it's the HG and to do the replacement. they're telling me that they basically can't/won't do the gasket because when they send it out for milling/machining there's not enough tolerance for the grinder to work with, so buy a new engine???

they said that they ran a compression test and said it was fine.

so the big ?'s of my day:
is this a load of BS and they're trying to rip me off.
if this is true, which is the better option; parting out/selling/donating, or getting a new engine?


it's only got 148k on it, body and interior are in great shape. I purchased it in may of this year, and it ran great for about 600 miles. I got screwed.

so now I send this off to the cloud of experts here @ EF. any and all help is greatly appreciated.


chris
proud owner of 6000 lbs of dead weight :|

 

[KWT2000]

i have done these in the past and your at the mileage point where i would recomend doing both sides to keep the tolerances the same but i don't think there is any reason not to do it.. seems like shop that is not hitting quota

 

[reality]

called a bunch of shops in town, they're all saying the same thing. basically it'd be cheaper (not by much) to get a new engine. neighborhood of $4000

 

[86caprirs]

Trust me, go with a new engine. Less headaches and a warrenty. I have had several engines appart (5.4L and 4.6L) with head gasket issues. I have acually found the block deck surface warpped.