97 Cherokee Head Gasket Problem?

I have a 1997 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L Automatic and I recently blew out one of my radiator hoses on the freeway. I immidiately got off on the next exit and turned off the engine. It started making a light clanking noise right before I turned it off. I then let it sit and replaced the hose and added more anti-freeze. I tried starting it and it started right up and I drove it another 30 miles to home. The next day I drove it all around and it drove just fine, but the following day I was driving home from work and it started to die as I gave it gas. I made it home by driving 5 mph for about a block and then I parked it. It still starts up fine but as I give it more gas driving, it starts to bog out and almost dies. I havent drove it since because I dont want to blow it up completely. Is this a possible head gasket problem? I think I might be getting water in the engine, but I cant tell for sure. How do you tell? There are no metal filings on the oil dip stick and there is nothing leaking. Any suggestions on what could be wrong or what I should do? Thanks

If you don't have coolant in the oil (which would cause oil to foam) or vice versa, the only other way your headgasket could be leaking is if you look in the rearview mirror and realize your riding a cropduster- you would see clouds of steam poppin out your tailpipe. pull your spark plugs and see if any are wet, if one or more is wet- you probably clogged up your exhaust (cat).

Sounds like you may have blown head gasket. You can have an internal leak of coolant without blowing smoke everywhere. Depends of the mixture of coolant. The best and pretty much only way to check for a blown head gasket is a cylinder pressure check. Go to any auto parts store and buy a cylinder pressure gauge ($15-20). Remove the spark plug on cylinder #1 and screw in the gauge. Disconnect your coil so it doesn't fire off and spin the motor over for 2 or 3 full revolutions. The gauge will read the cylinder pressure and hold the reading it at it's peak pressure. Now, do this on all 6 cylinders and write down the readings. You should have at least 100 psi. Look at your readings and if you have two cylinders side by side that are extremely low, that is the position that the head gasket is blown. If all of the readings are okay, then you should run a cylinder leak down test to check for valve damage or piston ring damage. Most likely, you have just blown a head gasket. This is not a difficult repair in comparison to most internal engine repairs, so if you have some good mechanical skills, you could realistically replace it in one Saturday.