Signs of a Blown HG--240sx?

[Jstyal]

Ok, at some point my A/C stopped blowing cold air, but the performance of my car, as far as I could tell, was unscathed. So I continued driving it with the A/C off, after all, I need all the free horsies I can muster, right?

Some time later, about 3 months later, which leads me to think the A/C problem had nothing to do with it, I notice my coolant bottle empty, so I refill the sucker and next thing I know, about three to four days after refilling the coolant bottle, I notice again the bottle is empty. I check for hose leaks and radiator leaks but notice nothing. So I refill AGAIN, and notice that my car seems to run just fine even when the bottle would empty out a coupled of days after being refilled. About two months after that, my temp gauge starts rocketing up while driving... Believing it's trapped air, I flush my radiator for air pockets. It seems to worked, somewhat. The car ran fine in normal operating temp but it did heat up immensly while stopped, but not to the point that you could smell the engine burning. As soon as I would get the car rolling though, the temp gauge went back down. I thought maybe a faulty temp sensor or thermostat was at fault at this point.

Shortly thereafter, I then notice my temp gauge rocketing high up to the max, whether I'm driving on the HWY and while stopped. I then start planning to buy basic replacement cooling parts to fix the problem--radiator cap, water pump, thermostat. But just recently, I notice my car has trouble starting... it cranks, cranks, and then finally starts, but, of course, it overheats really quickly. I also hear a strange ripping noise from the head when it's running.

Jump to today, the car no longer starts immediately, maybe after 10 minutes of continue cranking. I noticed that when I cold started my car (after about 20 tries), the coolant bottle immediately started to bubble (it usually only does this after about 20 mins of driving, when the car starts overheating). While the car was running, I popped the radiator cap off and saw no liquid but was met with a lot of steam--good thing it was not hot. Are these the symptons of the dreaded blow head gasket? A faulty water pump?

More pertinent details below:

-Car is a 1993 240sx SE-There is no coolant in the oil and no visible coolant leak (where is the coolant going???)-Spark plugs in chambers 3 and 4 are oil fouled.-New NGK ignition wires were just installed

Any information that anyone has in helping me determine the problem will be greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work guys!

[s13EastTN]

If there is no coolant in the oil, is the car smoking? I would imagine it's just a small leak, if you have access to a black light, take it and light it up over your engine in the dark. Coolant has this weird stuff in it that makes it light up bright w/ a blacklight (ever notice the white powdery stuff when it dries?).

I beleive you can fill up the coolant, and start the car with the cap off, untill all the air is evacuated it should bubble, but then stop after that. If it keeps on bubbling untill it heats up then it is quite possible it is a bad head gasket, as I hear that a blown gasket causes bubbles in the radiator.

[s13sr20chris]

it does sound like a blown head gasket. you need to do a compression/leak down test. head gaskets are easy on s13's.