I just bought a 1996 Taurus LX wagon about a month ago and took a road trip Memorial Day weekend with a couple of friends. It was someone else's turn to drive and accidentally they put the gearshift into 2nd gear instead of D and drove about 15 miles at 5000 rpm and the engine overheated. I did not notice until it was redlined (it was storming so there was a lot of noise everywhere) and then we pulled over but the damage was already done. When I got it towed to the shop they told me that I need a new engine on it since it had cracked due to having been stressed too much.
My question here is whether it's worth it to replace the engine (about $1000 + some shipping for an engine with 55k and $400 labor) or whether to try to part it out. I bought the car used (127k) for about $2000. I am wondering if anyone can tell me where I can try to sell parts off of it (if there is even a market) or just take it to the junkyard and accept the $100 for it. My main question is whether the investment would actually be worthwhile in the end. I'm in college so I'd prefer to fix if possible since a new(er) car would probably start costing me around $3000 or so but I don't want to risk the $1400 and then have a car that needs constant fixing. Thanks.