94 Explorer Jasper Engine or Head Gaskets

So I grew up with a ’94 Explorer with a Tow Package, my parent’s babied the car. It has ~60,000 miles on it. Recently blew the head gasket due to a leak in the radiator draw hose resulting in an empty radiator and a full surge tank. I know all the hype exploders have, but I really like this car, it’s not my daily commuter, it’s the car I use for towing and going backpacking. I was planning on paying the shop to put a new Jasper engine in, using the logic that so much on this car must be experiencing extreme aging that I would be saving myself some future headaches by all the hoses etc replaced with the engine. On a recent episode of CarTalk, a woman was complaining about a shop that had done the ‘top half’ of her engine and now needed to do the ‘bottom half’. Click and Clack told her they would have had her do both half anyway, that a remanufactured engine or a junk yard engine wouldn’t be as good. So now I’m second guessing my original decision. Should I just have the head gaskets redone and skip the new engine? What’s your opinion and why?

If it was a person, this SUV is old enough to drink! Keep this in mind.

The SUV has only 60,000 miles on it and the head gasket is blown from overheating. Low miles overall on the engine, should be fine for another 100K, replace the gaskets and all is fine.

The second scenario; An overheated engine may mean you now have a warped head or two. So now it got more expensive requiring 2 rebuilt heads plus the head gaskets and you don’t know if you hurt anything in the lower block. A rebuilt engine is looking much better in this scenario.

Now, you can buy a 94 Explorer in the best of condition for $1900. I doubt you can replace the head gaskets and one head for that price. IMHO, Time to sell the SUV to a junkyard and look for a newer model.

New engine is nuts. I would see how cheaply you can get head gasket fixed for.(hopefully $600 at tiny shop). I know Subaru which requires engine removal and two heads removed costs $1100 at my indy guy. Hopefully the engine is not removed here.

Ever consider renting. I understand emotional attachment but another expensive repair may be looming on this 21 year old rolling relic.

There are variables which affect your decisions. You describe the head gasket failure with the word “blew” and that generally means severe overheating which led to it blowing.
In cases like this engine coolant can dilute engine oil and wear out other things in the engine such as crank bearings, cam journals and lobes, etc.
It can also wash down cylinder walls while diluting the engine oil and ruin piston rings/cylinder walls. That leaves you with a potential smoking oil burner after new head gaskets are installed.

If the car is clean, mostly rust free, and you’re planning on keeping it quite a while a reman engine may be worth a shot.
Partial repairs such as head gaskets on badly overheated engines sometimes go south and salvage yard engines usually hover around 50/50 on whether or not they also have problems.

I would keep the Explorer if I could find a decent salvage engine to replace your old one. I would not buy a new engine and I wouldn’t put money into an engine that has blown head gaskets at this age.