overheated and died on the highway

[RamenPride]

This actually happened a year ago, but just now got around to fixing it. Anyway, what preceded this was I was really preoccupied with other things while driving from Va Beach back home to MD at the time. It was night time, noticed some smoke behind me and for some reason thought it was someone else's car or just salt on the road since it was winter and had just snowed. A couple minutes later I look at the dash and the temp gauge was pegged. I immediately cranked up the heat and tried to move over from the fast lane to pull over. In the process the lights start dimming and the car dies. Waiting for a tow truck I tried to start it, but it would just turn over but wouldn't start. Tow truck gets there and there's either oil and/or coolant all over the rear bumper and from the muffler tips. Check it out the next day and there's barely any coolant and the oil level is just below the lower level mark. I assume a blown headgasket, borrow my mom's car, drive back to MD and basically fast forward to today where I finally get a chance to take everything apart. All of the spark plugs were clean (new plugs I had just installed the last time I drove the car). The #1 exhaust port is all black like it was burning oil, but the valves are clean as are the other ports. I got the head of and the gasket is intact. No signs of coolant anywhere, but lots of crud on the top of the pistons. When removing the head bolts I noticed some of them loosened rather easily, while some of them were a b!t#h to turn. Turns out I may have pulled the head for no reason, but at 139,000 miles and another car to drive for now I figured it was no big deal. I also found that when I tried to pour in coolant it leaked out of the $5 rubber hose going to the oil cooler, so I guess that explains the loss of coolant and overheating.

So I'm basically planning on replacing the headgasket along w/ARP's and new timing components while I have everything apart anyway. I was looking inside the cylinder walls and can feel that they are smooth and I can see the crosshatch. However, on the fronts and backs of the walls of each cylinder there are some vertical markings about an 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch wide. I dragged my fingernail across them and it didn't catch. Again, the walls of each were smooth and if I didn't look I wouldn't have thought there was anything to worry about. I wasn't sure if this was normal wear or damage from overheating.

I was hoping that it was just a blown headgasket so I can get this car back up and running, but now I'm not sure if I'm looking at a rebuild instead. I'm trying to spend as little money as possible as I'm still looking at buying another car anyway and just keeping this one for an occasional drive. However, I'm still going to need it to be reliable until then (my mom wants her car back since I've had it for over a year )

 

[biker_joe89]

I think you will be just fine with new head gasket. Just put it together and do a compression test. See where you are at and go from there. As they say "if it aint broke, don't fix it". No need to blow all that money if you don't even need a rebuild.

 

[squeak104]

Make sure you or a machine shop checks the head for straightness. My wife let hers overheat until it shut off. Did the same thing wouldn't restart. Got it towed home, it sat overnight, put a new battery in it, changed the oil, and added some coolant. Fired right up. We've put another 15,000 miles on it at least since then. The only problem I've seen so far is I'm pretty sure the headgasket is seeping coolant a bit. Not burning it just leaking out the side. I have yet to ever pull the head off of it.

 

[RamenPride]

I forgot to add that I did plan on taking the head to a machine shop to get checked out and cleaned up. I should have done a compression and/or leakdown test before pulling the head off, but I just assumed the headgasket was gone. I guess I'll do it once I get the head back on. Thanks for the replies so far.