head gasket problem?

[phines]

been driving the car now for a week for hour long drives to and from work both in traffic and no traffic and no more problems since i have bypassed the heater core and the smell of antifreeze is also gone.

If the headgasket is bad do you think it should be overheating in the winter as well as the summer? Does the temperture outside have anything to do with overheating if its a head gasket?

Good to hear you have the problem under control for now.

As for the potential head gasket problem, mine never really had the overheating problem in the winter either. I did manage to have it overheat once when I was pulling a trailer up a mountain. You may not see that symptom again until it warms up. I don't know if that's good news or bad news, but at least it gives you a chance to save up some money for the repairs.

[joeworf]

Well, since I'm new to the VX circle I can't fully comment on the particulars, but I can offer a generalized overview.
Ahem, my old raggedy, but terribly durable '98 Kia Sportage (Stop laughing, damnit!) (nicknamed "Lazarus") had pretty much the same issues you described. One evening as I was desperately trying to ease it on down the road to the shop for repair before it overheated again (I had already figured out it was the heater core based on a similar go-round with an '82 Dodge Rampage) and all hell broke loose... all hell broke loose. The heater core blew up in a geyser of coolant and steam, clouded the windshield, filled the cabin with toxic coolant fumes and steam, disgraced itself in the passenger footwell, sent the temp gauge soaring, and all at 60 mph! Half blind, I zoomed to the shoulder and jammed it into neutral... or TRIED to jam it into neutral. Wound up nailing reverse for a nanosecond (always thought lockouts prevented that sort of thing in automatics.. who knew??) and heard this godawful roar and the tires chirp VERY loudly. I recovered quickly and popped it into neutral. My girlfriend, who was tailing me, thought I had blown it up. I figured I was wholly screwed and called for a tow. The next day the preliminary verdict came in (likely blown headgasket, shot heater core, possible transmission damage, etc.). The next day I went out and bought a new car. On a hunch I called the mechanic and had him run a few tests, since I hadn't seen any white smoke coming out of the tailpipe after I got it towed.
Sure enough, ol' Lazarus had faked me out again. Tranny was fine (pissed off probably, but fine), head gasket was fine and it was just a shot heater core. It was July, so I had him bypass the core and Laz was good to go. Of course when I started freezing my butt off in November I sprang for the $800 smackers to get some heat (and more importantly, the defroster).
That was three years ago and no further problems until just recently with a clutch fan and a clogged radiator. Hope you're as lucky (not the clutch fan or radiator).