Head Gasket

[bluejuice]

Hi, I've just inherited a 1991 H reg hiace van, 2lt petrol, and stupidly tried to drive it home knowing that the rad needed replacing and the fan belt was shot - needless to say it overheated (We did back off when the temp gauge went up and opened vents etc to get heat off engine and it did go back down)and then it dropped all the water out - RAC man used the words 'cooked'!!!

The good news is I haven't seized it - the engine still turns but doesn't fire - which i know to be due to the compression (more about that in a mo)

We've replaced the rad, fan belt, oil & filter (oil was still good and black, and hadn't gone thin)and spark plugs - 2 were wet and 2 were dry. Still wouldn't fire up!

Did a compression test and 1 & 2 are at 100, 3 is between 50-75 and 4 is dead - we know there is a leak between 4-3 - but now need to see where... is it just the head gasket - or have we cracked the b*gger!!!

Need to know if anyone has got any advice on what else we can do - or tips on doing the head gasket - would help if there was a repair manual - so hence I'm asking you guys!!

We know at 177k on a petrol engine should mean that we let it die gracefully - but it's a great van, and still wants to live... it almost fires on 2 1/2 cylinders!!! so we feel like we should try to keep it going - my dad has had the van for 5 years and said the engine was the best bit (until daughter got hold of it!!)

Anyone been through similar, or got any advice?

Thanks