Help! Losing hope!

Good day fellow tag enthusiasts,

I am going through a ton of issues in my teg pictures in my sig when it was healthy =(

The story starts by me buying this tag about 2 years ago since it was visually appealing and a pretty decent price with some goodies. After driving it for about 2-3 months the car started over heating. I posted about it in my local Facebook forums where I linked up with a guy that went to my high school that had a shop.. I brought my ride over to his shop and after a week of sketchy work, swapping my coolant and transmission cause it was broken according to it (idk, I was very new into the game and had no one else to ask and did not thoroughly research it, instead I trusted a "old friend"). I got my car back after about 1200 down the drain trying to repair it. 2 weeks later it over heats again. Went to a shop up the road from my house and they told me I should change the thermostat, I paid for that and after driving home it over heated again. I returned to the shop and they were asking for drastic numbers to repair it fully. One of the workers offered to do the work for me for half the price outside of the shop, he told me he would remove the head, send it to the shop to get it machined, install new head gasket kit, new radiator, new water pump and timing kit, and thermostat all inclusive with labor for 750. I accepted the deal and after about 4 days I went and got my car back and I saw he installed a radiator and SAID he installed everything and machine shopped. He did not provide me any paper work but assured me my car would run fine and not over heat again, I had his word. Well shortly after my car started to overheat again.
This time it was a hose rip and I changed that. Now my coolant runs out really fast maybe 1-2 days. the guy who replaced my clutch did not tell me it needed a new throw out bearing and put it back together resulting in a noise when clutch is not engaged. Also after the clutch job my car is now misfiring under acceleration and sometimes what sounds like sparks during ignition. I went to a mechanic a few days ago and he told me my head needs to get sent to the machine shop and new head gasket with all the coolant things (water pumps, timing kits) which will resolve my overheating and misfiring issues for a price of 1.2-1.3k...
I know I messed up by going to these people and am down a crap ton of money... I got played for being stupid and not doing my research. Now I cannot locate any of the mechanics, as one shop closed and the other one changed contact info and I don't remember his full name. there really is no cure for stupidity only stuff getting worse. Every day I regret it and feel bad about my decisions....At this point I'm losing hope in my car. I love integral and really want to save it. My parents hate the car and are not wanting to help out any more. I don't know what to do anymore.. I cant afford to pay that much money anymore and then things go wrong again.. Does anyone have any suggestions on what i should do?? I would really love to do things on my own but I don't know much about cars and I have school finishing up soon which will give me some time to play with the car....does anyone have any suggestions? I have like 800 to play with after selling my seats..
Sorry for my grammar.

What type of car is it.
Year? Model?

95 LS Integra , b20b swap

First id buy a haynes book. You can find them at your local autoparts store.
Buying a replacement motor can be a option.

You need to find legit info on the work that has been done to the motor.

Like if the head was resurfaced, radiator, water pump timing belt really replaced.

Other than that you probably have air bubbles in the cooling system since the hose replacement you've done. That would cause overheating.

Any leaks? Have you tried to bleed the cooling system by letting the car run through it's cooling cycle without the rad cap? How long does it take to overheat?
In all honesty, you should just buy a B18b1 and have someone swap it in and call it a day, you've spent too much money on trying to track down the problem and still no cure. Since you need a new throwout bearing, might as well just replace the entire clutch. OE exedy clutches are decent prices and are very good.


Sent from my iPhone 2g

If your head gasket is bad, I would buy a low compression B20 for like $300 and do the swap yourself. This way you learn the basics of your car and avoid shady people. Or better yet, sell it and try and buy something else, cause I doubt you'd have the tools to do the swap yourself