There are alot of factors to consider here, all of which effect the price. To keep it simple let's just consider the retail price of it, that will be the high end and you can come down from there. Book time on that will vary from shop to shop and from source to source. The All-Data I am looking at right now calls out 7.3 hours customer pay for a simple "head gasket". Most of the shops that I have been in charged 8,10, or 12 hours, that was B230, B230FT, or B234. So you would be looking at approximately 10 hours labor at whatever the going rate is, it is 75 an hour in my shop. The bare minimum you will need is a head gasket set which will have everything you need in it for a basic R&R of the head, list price on it is about $150.00. Now being as it is a turbo car you cannot grind the exhaust valves and if they require grinding then you need to replace them to the tune of $40.00 each, I believe it was the exhaust I would have to double check it before I sold them but either way the intakes and the exhausts are $40.00 apiece. Which is good because they were $75.00 back in the day. So if you need valves it is another $160.00 and then you have the machine shop charge. It will run somewhere between $250.00-$450.00 depending upon the shop and how much work your head needs. It should need no more than surfacing, valves and seats cut/ground, hot tanked, pressure/vacuum testing, set valve lash. Other things that can be addressed are the front engine seals, timing belt covers, t-belt tensioner, PCV system, heater hoses, temp sensor, new thermostat, oil trap replace or reseal, throttle valve service, new timing belt of course, drive belts, water pump, radiator hoses, heater control valve, radiator. This is all stuff that is either directly attached to your head or is infinitely easier to service with the head pulled off, such as the heater hoses and oil trap box. So in the end you can spend anywhere from $1200.00+ to damn near "the sky is the limit". Now if you are mechanically inclined then you can save yourself a nice chunk of cash, or screw up your car royally.


Mark