Hi, I have a 89' 240 w/5-speed trans. 187,000 miles on the clock. Couple days ago during rush hour traffic my car started acting funny. Was shaking pretty badly at idle and took forever to get up to top speed. It felt like it was only running on a couple cylinders.

Took it to my mechanic who told me today that a valve spring was out and there was no compression in that cylinder. Anyway, he gave me 2 options, One just replace the spring for around $300 and the other to remove head and replace spring, new timing belt, plugs, engine oil, anti-freeze, test, etc. This all came out to around $1200 I believe.

I started thinking that at that price I should consider doing a full engine rebuild cause the car is starting to get up there. He told me a full rebuild which would entail dropping the motor and doing everything would be $4k. He said a over the fender rebuild would add about $1k to the valve jobs. Any tips or advice? Money is tight for me right now and this would be a big investment but I have spent lots on my car including maintanence.


thanks
Fee