1997 528 Cooling

Great thanks to all. There is more of a story to this and the car has
sat for several months. It has not run for an extended period of time
since the head gasket was replaced but I cannot remember how long it
had been since she had purchased it. Yes, used car. Within a few
months of purchase she had to replace the spider web harness in the
steering wheel and had everything serviced then. This fall that would
have been three years ago. The head gasket was done last spring. Since
then there has not been 3000 put on the car so maintenance has been a
moot point. My father passed 3 weeks ago so the opportunity to get the
car presented it's self. She has this and a 97 full size van so while
I get the concern over paying for the parts it is easier to justify
what I am doing when I sell it all on the gas mileage aspect. (van
gets 15)

Update.

The patient is terminal.

Got everything together. Bled her down. Took more time than I should
have bleeding her down but I wanted to make sure it was as close as
possible. 15 minutes of slow water ads, etc. Temp guage straight up
the middle, rough idle but considering she had been sleeping for 7
months I figured it may be a few miles before she was happy again. Out
of the driveway. Less than 1/4 mile from the house she's running like
fried dog poop and the temp gauge starts coming up. Boiling by the
time we get to the house and I probably could have pushed the car up
the driveway faster than it was going to make it. CEL light = 3 plugs
misfiring. Steam, steam, steam. I let it cool down. I fire it back up
and stick the water hose into the expansion tank. Yes, we are going to
eliminate any water out of the engine. Fire it up. Bad idle, the the
point that the interior light is dimming in and out.
<at this point it is obvious that the car is hurt, we can debate the
logistics of it all but it is quite honestly cheaper to replace the
entire engine than for me to buy a head and have a head and head
gasket set installed so yes, I am not acting in a precautionary manner
at this point> The car runs for a good 30 minutes with the hose
installed. There would be seconds where the water was exiting unaided
but 98 percent of the time there was air mixed in with the water. The
car never got hot. It never ran worth a crap.
Tonight I pulled plugs. The #2 base had the most evidence of
misfiring. The #5 hole was the wettest looking (24 hours of sitting)
and front to rear during the compression test: 135 120 90 105 115 140.
Nothing consistent so far. I will put the radiator pressure test on it
tomorrow and see what that yields, if anything.

Hopefully it's the head gasket. Won't know for sure until it's off
the car. If it's the head the best price I have found on one is
$750.00. Gasket kit is about 250 plus other small things, labor, etc.
A complete engine is $1,500.00 (two places here in town, best engine
was 111,000 compared to mom's 101,000 with a warranty on it) I can do
the engine swap. What I can't do, for lack of tools is the head swap
and re-timing of everything. I have looked it over in TIS and to be
quite honest I am scared to try and do it in a home garage!