some texas redneck posted:

It's worth repairing, but not at dealer rates. Also, tell whoever was driving to pay more attention to the temp gauge - head gaskets very rarely fail without some form of overheating involved, and they would have noticed a pretty decent loss in power long before it got to the point of dying. More than likely a hose failed and dumped all the coolant - usually you get a ton of steam from under the hood when it happens, but at highway speeds it likely just went under the car (but the smell of coolant should have come in through the vents unless the climate control was on recirculate).

I'd consider $1700 to be rather high for a head gasket job on a 4 cylinder, but at the same time, if it got hot enough to seize, there's a reasonable chance the head will need work, and the possibility that the bottom end of the engine (everything below the head) may need work too. At $1700, you could spend a little bit more and get a used engine dropped in. If it's the V6 model, then that's ... a little high, but reasonable. You didn't mention which engine, so I'm assuming it's the 4 cylinder.

Also, there is no "timing chain motor". That engine does have a timing chain, but it's driven by the engine itself (the chain connects the camshafts to the crankshaft). It's good practice to replace the tensioner for it while it's apart, and with the miles it has, it won't hurt to replace the chain itself (especially after being overheated so badly) - it's likely stretched a bit over the years. A lot of engines run the water pump off of the timing belt or timing chain (your engine has a chain) - I don't know if your engine runs the pump from the chain, but if it does, it's also good practice to replace the water pump anytime you touch the timing chain. It's more of a "it's an extra 30 minutes of labor to do it while it's already apart, versus 8 hours of labor if it fails later" things that adds a (relatively speaking) small amount to the bill.

If it were my car, I'd get it fixed, replace all of the cooling system hoses, and not let anyone drive it until you tell them how important the temperature gauge is. Obviously, figure out why it overheated to begin with. Likely a split hose, but it could also have been a cracked radiator. A sudden failure would probably be a hose, unless you've been smelling coolant for awhile.