Girlfriends 90 245 w/ 193K was overheated it quite badly yesterday. She was following me on the highway when she called me on the phone to tell me the car was overheating. I told her to pull over and turn off the car. She waited until she was at a more convienent place to pull over, bad idea! When I popped the hood the overflow tank cap had burst and a considerable amount of coolant had escaped. With the car off, it was making a loud knocking/ thudding sound from inside the radiator, I assumed it was air bubbles from a possibly blown head gasket. I proceeded to let the car cool down and top off the coolant and replace the cap with a fresh one. Well she nursed the car back home. The new cap did not burst on the way home. The car was starting to overheat again before she got home. So now I am at work and want to make a plan on diagnosing the problem.

My train of thought so far

#1 Test compression on all four cylinders
#2 Drain oil, inspect for traces of coolant.
#3 Pull head, inspect
#4 Repair, repalce, and start rolling again.

Does that seem like a good plan, any thoughts?