Last summer I gave up on my '03 Legacy L after it was diagnosed with a likely burnt valve and the mechanic said it wasn't worth repairing.

Not so fast.

After a few significant life changes that have sent me to another state (in more ways than one), I have reexamined my priorities, and draw new conclusions. The car still runs. It doesn't like starting out, and will coughsplutterchug at the first couple of lights, but it will still do and maintain highway speed without major issues. It doesn't like moving again from a stop, but will eventually get up to speed. If I need to make the 40 miles into the city for errands, I can, but I'm holding off on making similar runs just for pleasure.

I called the Subaru garage in Johnstown, PA about my issue. They quoted me ~$180 for fresh diagnostics to confirm the diagnosis. Then after $700 just to get the engine out, I asked for worst case. With labor, that would be ~$2600 if the cylinder head needs replaced.

So including an existing oil leak that made it fail WV inspection, I'm looking at around $3K in hand before I call to get it done. Tonight I have $2500 of that. Most raised by myself, but I have a GoFundMe to try to speed things along.

I thought about just replacing the car, but after a lowball trade-in quote and no chance of financing anything, I figured fixing a car that was otherwise solid was better than spending the same on a car that has a ton of problems itself. $3K for another used Subaru on Marketplace? Um.. "needs engine."

Long story short, my car still runs, I like it, and I'm getting it fixed unless someone has a better idea what to do with $3K once I get there. And I'll gladly accept help in getting there.