96 Cali, blown head gasket

[gvr4_1510]

I know a friend of a friend that has a 96 TI that has overheating issues. The plastic thing at the back of the engine cracked, and the car started to run out of coolant. He assured me that he noticed quickly and the temp gauge never went into the red.

Anyway, he fixed that and it still overheats, but does run (he hasn't been driving it once he realized there were issues). He suspects the headgasket, I'm worried there could be something worse like a cracked/warped block or head. Anyone have experience or comments?

Also, I'm not really sure what these are worth, especially in this condition. If anyone wants to PM some price guidelines that'd be great. I'm going to take a look this weekend, so just assume everything else is in great shape at the moment. 96 Cali, purplish, 120-150k miles or something like that.

Thanks!

[b.u.ti-ful]

I would have to know why it is overheating before I bought it.

Could just be the thermostat or water pump, but who knows.

[amancuso]

its hard to properly bleed the cooling system on a BMW. keep bleeding it because there may still be air in the system.

[Bluebimma]

Compression, leakdown, pressure tests will give you its true condition. If all check out, you just need to check over the cooling components and bleed it.