and others who suggested the head repair route was viable. It turned out that the head was NOT EVEN WARPED! The head gasket failure was massive (worst head gasket I have ever seen, according to the tech) but the head was still straight. We did have a machine shop mill the bottom of the head because of corrosion, but it is otherwise just fine. We also had to replace the wiring harness (fine by me - the old one was garbage) and I still think the water pump was the original cause of the loss of coolant. Is there a good way to tell if the water pump is bad while the head is still out?

To answer your question, my wife never noticed any problem until she went out to start the car and it would not start (due presumably to the glycol in #1 cylinder). She did notice for the 5 miles drive home just prior that the engine seemed to have little power. The temperature gauge may have failed due to the wiring harness. I was seeing problems with the fuel gauge that certainly looked like intermittent ciruit problems just the day before. It had lost about 3 liters of coolant the day before and I refilled it, but the leak must have been really fast.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! THIS BOARD SAVED ME BIG $$$$!

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Chip Johnson