I'm pretty sure my head gasket is busted, what do you guys think?

[dividebyzero]

Right so here's what happened....

Back in November 2013, I began to notice a periodic smell of coolant while driving, as well as small drops of coolant periodically leaking, and white exhaust coming from the exhaust pipe when at a standstill. The car DID NOT overheat though. Took the car to my mechanic, he pressure tested the system and said that no leaks were found. The problem persisted, so I took it back to him again. Once again, he pressure tested the system and claimed that no leaks were found.

After driving around and still noticing that the symptoms were there, I took the car to two other shops to get a second and third opinion. After examining my car, both shops said that the head gasket was leaking, and that if I didn't take care of the problem soon, then the head gasket could completely get busted. Went back to my mechanic, told him what I found out, and he insisted that the head gasket was fine. He checked my car over once more and found some loose radiator hose clamps (which he tightened). After getting the car back from him and driving it for two weeks after he checked it out, there was suddenly no more exhaust smoke at standstills, coolant leaks, or coolant smell either. So I thought everything was all fine and dandy. Apparently not...

Six hours ago I was driving the car through a shopping center (after having run some errands for a while earlier) and out of nowhere, without warning, I noticed a huge plume of white exhaust billowing from the exhaust pipe (it was almost as if my car had turned into a mosquito fogger) and then ten seconds later, the car completely overheats, with steam coming out everywhere underneath the hood.

I'm no mechanic (sorry to all you DIY people out there), so what do you guys all think? Is this overheating incident indicative of the head gasket finally getting busted like the two other shops had warned? Or could it possibly be a completely unrelated problem that caused this to happen?

Overall, if it is the head gasket (which I have a feeling it is), I'm not gonna invest anymore time or money into fixing it. In fact, I might put it up for sale here on bimmerforums, in case anyone may be interested in buying it and fixing it up or using it for parts or whatnot.

This car, BTW, is a 1998 E36 328i.

[Rudolph320i]

Sounds like a headgasket to me, pressure test/leakdown test should be done to prove it.

[BimmerBreaker]

Sounds like the HG bit the bullet. I agree with above, take it to a shop - NOT the first mechanic who was an idiot - one of the other shops you visited who warned you of a HG failure, take it to them and have them do a leakdown test.

And I would never go to that first mechanic again

[auaq]

The thing with pressure test is that when the engine is cold you will most likely see the leak but when it's hot not so much likely not unless if it really is a big leak or say adding coolant everyday then you will/should definitely see it. I think if the leak is a minute one and doing a pressure test with hot engine is hard to actually see/find that leak.

[tmillagegbc]

I agree with above, take it to a shop..