Cracked head gasket/warped head??? plz help

[ghandi1492]

My mx-3 is probably on its last leg. My "family" 99 mercury mystique inner tie rod threads rusted out and i dont have the $$$/tools to fix it right now. Luckily, I have been riding to work with my mom(work at the same company) while my pregnant wife takes the mx to goto work pick up the kids at school. Now I fear that my mx-3 is going to crap out on my wife while she is driving it.

History: Have a 93 gs with a ZE that was swapped back in oct '02. Since then i have only put 20k miles on it. From day one I have had overheating/coolant problems(must have got a cursed engine). I have pretty much replaced every coolant hose under the hood (just do a search for this name and ghandi1981 in this forum and you will see all the problams i have had!!!). Everytime it overheated i didnt drive the car more than haf a mile and pulled over. A few times i have been dumb enough to add water to the engine while it was HOT. Didnt know at the time that i shouldnt have done that. About 2-3 months ago I had a hose go out. It was the water bypass hose. Took out the IM and did the VCGs while I was at it. I noticed that under the water bypass hose/pipe was standing water/oil. Around the time before that hose went out my car started to leak oil(from under the oil filter, and another spot off the tranny). I came to the conclusion that the water/oil mixture was overflowing from under the hose/in between the heads and pouring out down the tranny. Since replacing the hose, I have had to keep adding water to the car because i suspect it is leaking out. We were running late to my son's practice and I didnt check the water level before we left.

Coming home from son's t-ball practice the car started temp started to rise. I have a "bad" habit of always checking the temp gauge b/c of the previous history with my car. I was 2 blocks from my house and got home before it went over the 'H' line. I turned on the heater but no heat came out. BAD SIGN. Got home and turned off the car. Popped the hood and heard/saw air bubbles coming from the water in between the heads(Air bubbles could have been the water/oil boiling maybe??). Stuck my magnetic screw retriever down there by the fpr inside the liquid and it did come out a water/oil mixture but it wasnt hot so i dont think it was boiling(unless it cooled of by the time i touched it) Also on the magnet was little metallic fillings.

My car runs good(so i think) and i get good gas mileage. The questions I have are:

1) Why is there standing water/oil under the bypass pipe/hose and in between the heads?
2) If it is a cracked head, will i need a new engine?
3) Is is safe for my wife to drive if i keep the coolant levels in check for the time being til i can fix my other car?
4) What are those metal fillings from?


Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks!!

AJ

[kiwi_MX3]

Guess im going to have to be the poor bugger to touch this question
with a ten foot barge pole, You better buy your mum something really
nice for mothers day you know!

Anyway.

First off the valleys between the heads tend to collect any water and crap
as there are no drain holes.

A warped head, would discolour the oil, make it look white and frothy like.
also it would be blowing bubbles in the collant system.

Id recommend that you get your family car fixed for your wife to drive
as reading all the problems your had with this engine its not worth
spending money on or time till you have a reliable road car.

[RacerX]

COuld be air in the cooling systems.