2.3L ('83-'97) Overheating Issue

[pacerr]

So I've got a '94 2.3l XL with 311,XXX km on it and have been having a serious issue with overheating. It has given me no issues for the previous month and then out of nowhere it just started overheating. I was coming home from classes and there's a big hill I have to go up to get home, usually the truck has no issues doing the hill in 4th, but this time as I'm going up I'm losing revs, so I switch to 3rd and the revs still aren't going up. So I pull over and as soon as I stop the thing stalls and steam is coming out from under the hood. I then had to wait for it to cool down so I could limp it home. I replaced the thermostat because I thought maybe it'd been stuck closed because the lower rad hose was cold while the top was hot, drove out again and made it to Lordco where I picked up a new water pump because it had overheated again. It then took me 4 hours of stopping and starting and cooling down to get home which is usually a 30 minute drive. So I replaced the water pump and did a rad flush thinking that'd solve the issue, I drive out to grab so more oil cause it was a little low and by the time I'm back home it's overheated again, steam and everything.

I just don't know what the issue could be at this point, any ideas or help is appreciated.

 

[franklin2]

Pull the sparkplugs and see if they have coolant on them.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, that sounds like blown head gasket or cracked head (they crack between the valves) to me which is unfortunate. I would do a quick compression test on all 4 to see if it's low on two neighboring cylinders which would be head gasket...