Blown head gasket possibly?

[karinvail]

Yesterday I was on a trip a couple hours from home and on the way home, there is a set of steep hills - It wasn't overheating (fan is working fine), but by the time I got to the light at the bottom side of one of the hills, my car just quit and started billowing steam/smoke and would not restart (cranked fine, but wouldn't catch) Temp guage was in normal range. Pushed it off the side of the road into gas station parking lot and opened hood. I was assuming it was going to be a timing belt, but there was smoke/steam billowing from the passenger side head (smelled awful!). I'm assuming it is a blown head gasket? I eventually was able to restart it, but it ran like CRAP. Very rough and rattly. Hubby came with a car trailer and we hauled it home on that. Haven't looked at it this morning, but head gasket is my first guess. Does that sound like a good possibility?

[jeffroid]

Could also be an intake manifold gasket.

[NorthWet]

Sounds unlikely that you would get external, engine compartment steam off of a blown HG. I would check intake gasket and hoses. If blown HG, much more likely to get steam out exhuast and/or water in oil.

 

BTW, I have noticed over the years that if the coolant level is low then the temp gauge can read normal until engine is severely overheated, because sender unit isn't getting any real water flow over it. It will start reading hot only when the steam starts hitting it.