Headgasket Blues!!! :(

[woodstockfreestar]

Well, my Freestar got me last week on thursday in rush hour traffic. After paying my huge 191 dollar tow bill to get home, and late fees to the daycare since I didn't make it on time.

Here's what happened - All was fine and dandy for about 20 miles then with only about 25 left to go my Temp. gauge shot straight to the top and the engine was noisy and had almost no power. When I took my foot off the gas to slow down to prepare to pull into a gas station, it died. I attempted to restart and it did but horribly rough idle and dies when you apply throttle.

After a cooldown period and adding enough water to bring it back to full again I started it back up and the water was bubbling in the bottle where you fill it. It wasn't boiling though as it was cold. Once started and idling the van is in full overheat in about 3 minutes. Took it to a local garage and they told me the headgasket is blown between the water jacket and the far right back cylinder. They want about 1600.00 do replace both gaskets and have the heads milled down. Does this sound fair?

After the transmission rebuild I just don't have the money for another huge repair so I guess for the time being I am just out of luck. It's hard to mail payments on something you can't even drive. Luckily we didn't trade the volvo, but just kept it.

Is there any hope the freestar could live to see 260k like the volvo? So far I haven't even made it to 100k yet, and already two massive repairs, plus many other that I consider pretty major.

Has anyone been able to do the headgaskets themselves on the 4.2 motor?