Ok,

When it rains it pours. Coldest day of the year and on my way to work I noticed the temp going up and the idiot like came on. Nowhere to pull over, so I cut the engine and coasted as much as possible. Fired her up and noticed the temp going down, but stayed above normal.

I then start to hear ticking and lose power. Steam came from the hood and a nice coolant leak in front of the engine.

now I'm looking for parts for a head gasket job. Apart from the gasket does anybody know if the head bolts are the stretch kind? anything else I should order from rock. Do I just do the side that'* leaking or both? any advice on the job?

Thanks

if your head gaskets are bad, you should have, or at least check the heads for warpage in a x fashon and strait around it and across the cylinder with a flat metal strait edge like a metal rule. they are torque to yield bolts

ok, just to make sure I order everything I need,

Head gaskets
head bolts
lim gaskets
uim
uim gaskets

Anything else?

is it the plastic manifold? you sure its not leaking from the lower manifold or somewhere and dripping across? kind of rare on 3800'*

Sounds more like a failed LIM gasket.

Yeah, it has the plastic manifold. I could be wrong it could be a bad LIM gasket. Unfortunately I don't know how to tell the difference. The car is still by the side of the highway, I'm going to pick it up tomorrow.

What should I look for if it'* the LIM?

You won't know until after you tear down. But I HIGHLY suggest you not attempt to start the engine again until the spark plugs have been removed.

Once you get the car back home, remove the spark plugs and get as much of the coolant out as you can and turn the engine over using the starter. This will remove coolant(if it did go in) from your cylinders. Next, use a cylinder compression test tool. This should tell you if your head gaskets are toasted. But I doubt it, haven't seen a set on here go yet. (10 years goin now)

As far as your shopping list goes...let'* change it some..

UIM gaskets
LIM gaskets
Coolant
Oil
Filter

Keep us posted.

Thanks Mike, I'm guessing I still need the upper manifold. Right?

I'm not familiar with the Series 1 upper manifolds, but you might see a date stamp imprinted on top of it. If you don't, it wouldn't hurt replacing it.

I think the car should be diagnosed before we start filling up a cart at rockauto. When the plastic UIM fails on the series 1, it dumps coolant out. Very rarely does it ingest like the series 2 is known for. LIM gasket failure will leak coolant out at the 4 corners, or in to the lifter valley, causing a milkshake in the crank case. Headgaskets are VERY rare, and the engine can usually survive a horrendous overheat. I think if it blew headgaskets, you will also have other issues too. I think there was a leak, the car ran low on coolant, and boiled over. If i am right,it may not be a headgasket issue