We've been having cooling issues with the girlfriends 95 Cherokee Sport the last year. Nothing serious, or at least nothing easily diagnosed by the tech we go to. Check the levels frequently it its been a good rig.

Going down the highway tonight, at a reasonable speed even, i notice the gauge is in the red, and in the time i was wondering if the gauge was screwing with me or not, the engine started to run worse and worse. Was able to limp it to a highly lit section ov highway to get a look (maybe about 1.5 miles later), but by the time i got there it was barely running, so i shut it off. All fluid gone, engine smoking, and rad cap nowhere to be seen?

I'm thinking whoever had the cap off last (not me) didn't quite get it back on right, and i lost it a couple miles before i saw the gauge tagged.

So i filled the thing to capacity with some handy dandy creek water (luckily everything is flooding here right now), it wouldn't start, battery died (weak in the first place). Looooooooong miserable story later... got to a friends house, we shot down there, jump-started it, got it to a nearby gas station, and it was running BAD. Worse, now the starter sounds different... like theres a dead cylinder... like a : rr-rr-rr-whiiiiirrr-rr-rr-rr-whiiiiirr... Which goes great along with that new BAD exhaust leak (or similar sound).

Filled it up, checked everything out, no leaking. Lucked out and found the cap hanging off the frame. Limped it 30 miles home. When i got to the gas station in town the gauge had not moved from the 100-110 it read the whole way, but the engine was steaming again. By the time i got home it was wanting to die and pretty hot again.

Did i blow the head gasket?

Its gotten warm before (not like this though), and its always had a coolant leak nobody could diagnose. To me... it points to a weak/bad head gasket, that finally went when the cap popped off the rad on the highway tonight.

Sound about right? Other ideas? How many hours to fix for a shop? (i wont be doing it)