E30 318i blown head gasket?

[G-Man]

I'm afraid I've blown my head gasket on my 91 E30 318i M42 motor. A couple of nights ago, the temp gauge goes into the red, I immediately shut the car off and walk to the local grocery store and buy a couple of gallons of water. I put a gallon into it, drove to my mechanics shop last night where it was running a little rough, we added some more water and antifreeze and bled the cooling system. Today the temp gauge goes up to the red again and I shut the car off and add the second gallon of water.

I'm losing large amounts of water, it's not leaking or dripping on the pavement when I park it, so I'm guessing it leaking into one of the cylinders. When I stand behind the car, I can't smell any antifreeze and no white cloud is following the car which usually happens after a head gasket blows. I'm guessing the head gasket has failed allowing a very small leak into one of the cylinders and the water is burning up. Runs great till enough water burns up and then the temp gauge suddenly goes into the red.

I changed the oil on the 318i this morning and the oil was normal, no milky color at all.

Any ideas of where water is going? Next step, do a pressure test on the coolant system? I pulled the plugs, nothing out of the ordinary there.

I've had the 318i for over four years now. I just installed a LSD on the car a couple of weeks ago, it has Bilsteins, Hella H1/H4, it's a CA rust free car, never been hit so I'm not going to junk it, it's got 152K on the car now. Here's what the car looks like
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...rfan02/Gordon/ It now has bottlecaps on it. The 15" Borbet wheels and NOS Italian 2002 turn signal lights have been sold.

G-Man

[tjts1]

Have you fixed the noses below the manifold? Coolant and intake vacuum come in very close contact to each other in a couple of the heat exchangers.

[Dj Buttchug]

do a compression test see what you get.

[G-Man]

Two years ago, the timing chain tensioner failed on my original engine at 129K which turned the motor into a boat anchor. I scored a used M42 motor, before the motor went back into the car, a new clutch was installed along with all new hoses under the intake manifold and a new oil pump and timing chain, water pump.

No compression test yet.

G-Man