surely if head gasket has gone I wouldn't still be able to drive the car).

It depends where the breach is occuring. The problem with overheating often isn't the absolute temperature but a temperature differential which causes warping or cracking.

For a while I ran an old Toyota that had eaten three head gaskets over about 30,000 miles (not under my ownership!). After the third gasket change, oil kept appearing in the coolant. Maybe the cylinder head had cracked after too many severe thermal cycles. But it ran happily enough until was scrapped for an unrelated problem. Btw does the temperature gauge fluctuate when you open the throttle?

Without wanting to sound sanctimonious if you're going to run a car on a tight budget you need to be on the ball. Running out of coolant/oil and driving until warning lights come on/engine stops is asking for catastrophic failure and is totally avoidable. It takes 30 seconds to check the oil and coolant and if the car has problems, it's a good idea to do so every time the car is parked on a flat surface like a supermarket carpark.

I note you pid £300 for the HG before Christmas; is that not a bit cheap for these engines as you're supposed to get the head skimmed at the same time? Or am I getting my engines mixed up?!

I only ask as my uncle is a nut for Rovers and Jags and he bemoans 'cheap' HG replacements on Rover as they basically cause irrepairable damage.

The cars when going is worth very little with a shot engine its worth scrap value like I said he has to decide not you or me idiot.

I'm trying to extract some sense from this string of gibberish .....