Head gasket?

[Gmann1417]

So the other night after watching some awesome fireworks I was trying to drive home in my 2001 bmw 325xi 212k miles and was stuck in heavy traffic, literally wasn't even able to upshift to 2nd the whole time, and outta no where my car overheated and a big white condensations n cloud came out from my hood, now I don't remember seeing any smoke shoot out behind me but a reason it came from the hood coulda been cuz I have half the exhaust cut off for sound and what have you, I pulled her off to the side out of the road and there was just water water or coolant dripping from everywhere from the huge cloud, now my question is is this a blown head gasket or could it be something to do with the pressure hoses or whatever the terms are and one of those busted or leaked on something very hot? Causing the huge confusion condensation cloud or are my fears true that it is a blown head gasket and would I be better off replacing that or finding a new engine to swap out?

[TonyAngel]

Hello, Gmann. Did you shut the motor down soon after the big puff? Have you popped the hood and actually looked at it. Being an E46 and assuming that the cooling system hasn't been refreshed in a while, any of a number of cooling system components could have failed. Whether you have head (gasket) damage is going to depend on how long you ran the motor after the failure. Pop the hood and check all of the hoses, radiator and expansion tank. It sounds like something let loose.

[MIKYZZ4]

We can all assume the worst, but you won't be able know the true condition-until you open the hood,
and perform a careful inspection of the cooling system components, along with some engine tests.