blown head gasket

[jlong]

Well I think I have a blown head gasket, at the very least. I was driving down the interstate between san antonio and houston and got about 30 min outside houston and the car started down shifting when going over overpasses. I thought it was kind of strange and then noticed the temp was at 3/4 and climbing and then hit the top and the red light came on.

I was already exiting when it came on and when it did I shifted into neutral and turned it off. I let it cool off to about half way and tried to start it. It doesn't sound right. Sounds like it has lost compression. It started and then died. I let it sit there a little longer and then started it and it ran fine.

At this point the water tank was bone dry. Funny thing is the low water light never came on. I was able to get it to a gas station just fine. Ran fine and no problems. The gas station was about 3/4 a mile away. Got it there, put water in it and it ran fine. I let it idle and filled it with almost 2 gallons of water. I thought I was in the clear.

Well I stayed on the access road and drove no faster than 50mph. The temp held steady at a little over half and I got about a mile down the road and the temp rapidly started rising again. I immediately pulled off the road and shut it down. The water tank was bone dry again. I didn't notice any smoke out the tail pipe, I checked the dip stick and it didn't look like water was in the oil.

I smelled the water tank and it smells like gas/oil. It won't start now and sounds funny when I try to start it. It isn't knocking and the valves aren't ticking or no unusual tapping noises. It sounds high pitched now, like lost compression is allowing it to spin freely.

SO I guess my question is, is it fixable or practical to fix? Could the block or head be warped or cracked or should I just look for a low mileage replacement?

This sucks because I just bought bunch of new parts for it. Good thing is none of them are open or have been installed and I'm pretty sure I can return them if I don't end up fixing the engine.