need help with my 2004 expedition
 

My coolant has been going down between oil changes. Last month my heater quit and they said it was a valve and replaced it for 150.00 and said my coolant shouldn't leak anymore. My heater still isn't working. Now they tell me it is probably my intake manifold is cracked and to fix it would be a thousand dollars. When I explained I am a old retired cleaning lady with cancer in four places and I couldn't come up with a thousand bucks they said for a hundred dollars they could check it further and it might be a cheap 100.00 fix but they doubt it will be anything less than a cracked valve something on my manifold. Any suggestions here? I hate to just park my suv over a 100.00 fix and I definetly can't afford a thousand dollars. What are my chances it could be a cheap fix? I had them fill the coolant up on Sept 13 and today it was down a gallon of coolant.

Are you able to get the hood of the vehicle open to look at the coolant level?
Also, do you see any signs of wetness or puddles under the vehicle when you move it?
Have you been able to get a second or third opinion from another "reputable" shop?

What is the temp gauge doing while driving and idleing

most of the time if your heater doesn't get warm or blow out warm air it's because the coolant isn't going through the heater core. it also means that you can't defrost the windshield making it hard to see through and that gets dangerous. I have a couple of questions for you. First, can you smell a sweet smell like koolaid while driving? second one is there a lot of steam coming out of your exhaust pipe?

I dont notice a smell but it has been blowing alot of white smoke out the tailpipe

I havent noticed any smell but but I have noticed a lot of white smoke from the tail pipe lately

a shop told me I have a crack in my manifold and it would be a thousand dollars to repair. They put stop leak in it to see if that would work

temp gauge sometimes goes up to high so they added coolant

that isn't good and it ain't cheap to fix that either when you have a lot of white smoke coming out of your exhaust pipe it usually means that it has a blown head gasket. That's where your coolant is going. if it were mine and I couldn't get it fixed then I would trade it in and get myself another car. Another question are you making payments on the one you're driving now?