Ok, so while I wait for my reliable mechanic to diagnose things I thought I'd post on here and get some opinions.

I've got a 97 Buick LeSabre 3800 3.8L Series II engine with 120K miles. Granted it's an older car, but it's paid for and I've had 3 cars with the 3800 series II engine and it seems pretty reliable. Here's what happened.

I've had a coolant leak for a while, but I could never figure out where it was. No obvious leakage inside the engine bay and no puddles underneath the car. Pretty severe leak as in if I filled the reservoir within a day or 2 it would be empty again. The car wasn't running hot and didn't have any real problems so I just left it go. As winter is approaching I figured I might want to get that coolant leak fixed so I filled the reservoir on Sunday to try and see if I could find the leak...Monday morning I drive to work no problems, that afternoon my car starts, but it's running rough. There was about 60 seconds of white smoke, that went away. My check engine light came on and I drove a mile and a half down the road to my dads house. Threw a code for an engine misfire (No kidding! ha!) But my code reader isn't one of those fancy ones.

While testing things there, the reservoir was empty again. My dad filled it with water this time. The car started and ran "normal" for a test drive around the neighborhood. I left my car there for him to play with and the next afternoon my dad goes to take it for a test drive and the car won't start.

The engine appears to turn a revolution or two. I had it towed to a shop. They've discovered this much.

2 cylinders side-by-side were full of coolant. They suspect it's either the head gasket or the intake gasket, but won't know until they start to tear down the engine. They suspect the engine did hydro-lock.

Given the many years of experience here...what are we thinking? I hear it's very rare that the head gasket blows on that engine. I've never known an engine to come out of being hydro-locked but my mechanic seems to think that's not a huge deal on this engine. Just have to "clean some stuff up" in his words...I've also read a few things on the internet (not always the most reliable source) where folks had this engine hydro-lock and after cleaning things up things were back to normal.

Thoughts? comments? Should I be bracing for a hefty repair bill or do you think it's time to total the car and start saving for another. (The intake repair...if that is the problem...is priced at $800 - $900. 3 hours of labor for them to take things apart and confirm if that's actually the problem.)

Thanks in advance!