are you having other work done on the engine? I don't see thew reason behind removing the entire drivetrain to change head gaskets. It's done on this board allt he time to put in the timeserts, etc.. removing the engine.. THAT is why the stealership is charging you so much money.. and any shop should be showing you exactly where the parts failed and why.. otherwise, they are bull$hitting you and taking your money.. my car is loosing coolant on a regular basis.. but it's because of the tiny crack in the POS radiator cadillac made for these cars. If you had coolant leaking into a cyllinder, that cylinder would be nice and shiny with no deposits of carbon.. or at least a MASSIVELY less amount of carbon than the rest of the cylinders.. if you had coolant leaking into the crank case and getting into the oil, your oil would look like a chocolate milkshake.. since neither of these conditions looks visible on your car, then you must have a gasket leak where the coolant would leak onto the ground.. If you were getting a puddle ont he ground, then you're set.. 9 out of 10 times, these leaks can be fixed with one of the many cooling system stop-leak additives. If you've had none of these conditions, you got screwed.. Or your coolant is leaking from somewhere else and they just wanted to hit you up for a motor removal and new head gaskets..
and for GOD'S sake man!!.. FLOG that poor car once in a while will ya??? That will keep the carbon to a bare minimum.. That's just WAAAAY too much carbon in an engine.. you're lucky you're not having other problems like stuck valves or valves not closing all the way from the carbon stuck under the seats. Your piston rings are probably caked up pretty good too.. Here's another free tip from you're uncle Jamie... If you find another decent warm day, pull the air intake hose off the throttle body and get yourself a good spray bottle filled with water.. start the motor and rev it to about 2,000 rpm.. then start spraying water in the throttle body.. this will effectivly "steam clean" the innards of your engine.. ask any OLD school car guy about this trick.. I do this at least twice a year along with frequent drag strip runs on the summer weekends.. I have a friend who's a mechanic with a bore scope.. we pulled the plugs on my car last summer and took a peak inside.. for 106,000 miles and original plugs, she's pretty darn clean inside.
But seriously.. you've GOTTA excercise that car once in a while.. hit it getting on the freeway or something... just give her a good ole leg stretching...
