97 Cavalier 2.2 won't start after overheating

Great running 97 Cavalier 2.2 104K miles was running a little low on water. Started on mountain trip and temp gauge was 3/4 compared to normal 1/2. Never did this before. Turned off engine and coasted down mountain pass. Got to 90 MPH and cooled off real quick, maybe too quick?

On return trip, refilled coolent. After 150 miles on top of a mountain pass heater stopped blowing hot air, burrr. Stopped and checked and had extreme vibration in cooling system hoses and overfill container. Relieved presure by loosening cap and vibration stopped.

Easily started car and continued 60 miles. Temp gauge went from 3/4 to HOT. Immediately pulled over and turned off engine. Water as low again. No indication of a external coolent leak. After 20 minutes, put more water in it and tried to restart but no luck. Towed car home, pulled and dried spark plugs and tried restarting every day for week with no luck. Seemed to have good spark and gas and cranked faster and faster like it was about to start but never did. Noticed a few what looked like water stains from bottom of cylinder head but no water in oil and coolent had small amount of exhast smell. Never noticed any smoke.

Finally pulled cylinder head off and there was no water in cylinder chambers, head gasket didn't seem bad with cracks or holes and no noticable cracks or warpage in head or block. Did notice 4 of the 5 front head bolts did not have much torque when I removed all 10. It seems like an obvious blown head gasket problem as is typical with these cars. But confussed on why the car would not start even after a week. Could a head gasket or the 4 non torqued head bolts caused that much of a loss in compression that it wouldn't start?

I'm unemployed and can't afford much, so before I go and take head to shop or buy a rebuilt one I would like to know its the head or gasket for sure? Seems to me it should have at least started unless there is damage elsewhere?

The "vibrating" in the coolant hoses sounds like the water may have been boiling. Was there coolant in the reservoir when you checked? I'm guessing not or you probably would have mentioned severe burns :). Having loose head bolts could definitely cause a coolant leak... I'm experiencing a similar problem with mine right now, and it uses coolant when I go near full throttle. Basically the head lifts off the block a bit from the pressure in the cylinder. Mine's from the high compression and boost (and the bolts stretching), but yours is essentially doing the same thing. What I would do is look very closely at the head for any cracks. If there aren't any, check for flatness with a straightedge and reassemble with a new head gasket if the head's OK. Be sure to use new head bolts, they are torque-to-yield, which means you tighten them to the point they begin to stretch just a little bit. This weakens them, and if re-tightened won't put enough pressure on the gasket and it could leak again. There's also a chance they could break.

I wouldn't really think that just having the head bolts loose would cause such low compression that it wouldn't run (or at least fire a few times). Did you check the compression before you pulled the head? If not, check it after the engine's reassembled. Also check the fuel pressure, just having fuel there isn't enough, you need a minimum of 10 PSI or so just for it to idle, and if I remember right the spec. is about 45 (41-47 on a 94 2.2 S-10, just checked one of those today). Maybe someone who knows what the car spec. is can post it before you get the engine back together, if not, do a quick search it's listed in about 1 in 10 posts in this forum :)