Answer

All can tell you is to make sure you keep the coolant filled (over fill the reserve bottle, too.) If you know you have a coolant leak, the temperature will run hot. There's no way around that. You need to have pressure on the system to keep the coolant boiling point lower. With a leak, you won't get the needed pressure.
The head gaskets aren't a real common failure on these motors. However, they will easily fail if the motor is overheated. This is very common. Your leak can be coming from many different places. The more common failure (often mistaken for head gasket failure because the coolant will mix with the oil) is the lower intake manifold gaskets.

You can try to add coolant stop leak to the system. Bars makes a decent stop leak that will slow the leak down until you get to a repair shop. Just make sure they flush the cooling system out when the repair is finished. This stuff can sometimes plug up radiators and heater cores if left in for long periods of time.
Other than that, just watch your coolant level and keep the temp gauge low, otherwise head gasket failure will most likely occur. If you aren't burning coolant, or misfiring real bad, don't let a shop sell you head gaskets, even if the coolant is in the oil!

Water pump is about $75 and 1.5 hours labor to replace. I can't give you a good labor cost, because the labor rates vary from shop to shop. The water pump is on the passenger side, though, not the driver's side.


Edited by ttiger79 on 11/19/2006 at 12:42 PM