Pontiac Repair: Car engine overheated, and now it wont start, grand prix gtp, pontiac grand prix gtp

Question
Hello Todd, I hope you may be able to help me a bit with this situation....

Today my daughter and I ran a lot of errands in my vehicle.. I have a 97 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP 3.8 engine by the way... I notice a big leak of antifreeze under my car, i check the container of antifreeze and it was full, but i could not get the radiator cap off, so i head to the gas station to ask for help... on the way there which was after about a mile to 2 mile drive, i notice my cars temp gauge was at the max which is 260 so i pull over and sit for about 30 mins before i continue my drive to the gas station which was now about 2 blocks away. 30 mins pass and I head to the gas station and we go inside the cafe so that the car can cool down. About 1 hour passes and i head out and i attempt to start the car and now the car will not start at all. when i turn the key in the ignition it makes one click noise. All of my lights come on. I just got the car towed home and Im praying my repair costs wont be 1000s of dollars!! Do you know what the issue may be with this car?

Answer
Hi there:

well it doesn't sound good not to give you the bad news. when you have an over heat issue you should never drive it. the original issue may have been either a watre pump or a coolant bypass nipple on the front of the engine went bad and caused the leak. the bottle may have been full buy the radiator wasn't. continuing to drive it when it was overheating may have cause the engine to seize up due to the extreme heat. with out seeing it I can;t tell you for sure what happened it's just a guess. good luck :)