I have a 98 1500 w/ approx 200k miles on it. I was driving on the interstate yesterday and start noticing smoke and antifreeze smell in the cabin. I pulled over before the check light came on and before the temp hit the red zone (260F).

I popped the hood and it looked like someone threw a water balloon in the left side of the engine. I first thought it was from the overflow reservoir. I figured my water must have gotten low because its always had a slow leak that I refill every once in a while. I thought I must have not refilled it before it got too low and it over heated.

Came back about 4 hours later to it with a few gallons of water and started pouring it into the radiator. I noticed water started leaking out the top front left side of my motor so I stopped pouring.

I dont know anything about fixing things to this extent. I assume that my head gasket cracked but I'm not entirely sure. What should I expect to need and cost to repair this?

 

Well firstly, did the engine make any noises, such as banging, knocking or tapping before the smoke and antifreeze started coming out?

My thought is either your thermostat is not opening, your you were completely out of coolant. Because of the speed of driving on the interstate, so much air gets rammed into your engine compartment, that I would assume even if you were slightly low on coolant you wouldn't notice. So having almost no coolant is probably the case. That is assuming no mechanical damage occurred.

Grab a flashlight and a small mirror and try to look at where the coolant is coming from. That will be your first step.

 

No noises nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Water is coming out of the engine block.

 

Yes but where ...? Right where the head gasket would be, from a crack in the block, is it coming out of a hole in the block?

 

Isnt the fitting for the heater hose into the intake manifold? Seen alot of them corrode and break?