How screwed am I? Head gasket problems

[theduke208]

Long time lurker, first time poster, etc etc.

I'm just wondering how screwed I am here. I have a 2002 Montero XLS 3.5 that I recently purchased. It had been running fine up until the other day. On the freeway with cruise on it started to lose a bit of speed and the CC downshifted to pick up speed, the engine revved but didn't go faster. I started to pull over and gave it some gas, the engine revved again but no increase of speed. By the time I coasted to a stop the engine died and would not start. I had it towed to my work and tried to start it again, I had spark and fuel but it sounded like I had NO compression. I didn't have time to look into it more until today. I topped off the oil poured a whole gallon of antifreeze into the radiator, no change, I pull the #1 spark plug and found it to be soaked in the antifreeze I just added. Also I seem to have a pin hole leak in my exhaust system and it must be full of fresh coolant also because its dripping out there.

So does this sound like a straight blown head gasket or more serious like cracked engine block? Also, I hooked up my scanner as soon as I pulled over and engine temp was 190 and there were about 25 different codes thrown. I haven't had any problems with it over heating, it would sometimes get up to 220 at a read light but its over 100 outside where I'm at!


Thank you for any input you may have!

 

[IncorpoRatedX]

Sounds like a blown head gasket... I've watched them pump gallons of water out of the exhaust, pouring it in the radiator and watching it come out of the tail pipe. The water jackets are fairly easy access once the gasket blows. You never mentioned the temp gauge during your description, was it pegged?

 

[theduke208]

Sounds like a blown head gasket... I've watched them pump gallons of water out of the exhaust, pouring it in the radiator and watching it come out of the tail pipe. The water jackets are fairly easy access once the gasket blows. You never mentioned the temp gauge during your description, was it pegged?

Temp gauge was in the normal range, I think it blew so fast and hard that it flooded the engine before it could overheat.

 

[kalieracer]

Time for metal head gaskets !

 

[theduke208]

Update

Well, seeing as how I've changed my own oil once or twice before, I've decided to tear apart and engine and replace the head gaskets. Sounds reasonable right? After getting the damn thing half apart I'm not so sure it was the head gasket... I have antifreeze in all 6 cylinders, I've only gotten to the passengers side head off but it and the gasket looked fine, at least to my untrained eye.

So could this be something none head gasket related or is it possible that the gasket blew on the other side and cause this side to fill with antifreeze??