Pontiac Repair: 98 transport van coolant issues, head gasket failure, intake manifold gasket

Question
So i am trying to trouble shoot this on going issue with my van. It started with over heating and engine stalling with the temperature gauge pinning to the right. Mechanic said turn screw near thermostat to relive air. did not work. Change thermostat, did not work. Coolant flush worked great.... for 2 months then it happened again. Loosing fluid but dont know were it is going. Oil is clean. While driving it pinns to the right and the temp light comes on then it goes back down again. Top hose on rad HOT. bottom hose on rad does not seem to have any pressure to it... i really don't know what else to do and if its head gasket i am screwed... could it be water pump?  

Answer
Hi Bill:

well more then lilley this started out as a lower intake manifold gasket leaking and it got to the point where it was low enough on coolant that is started to over heat. These engines are not very forgiving when they over heat. They usually do blow a head gasket if it keeps hapening they can only take some much abuse before they give up and start leaking. It's a big job to replace head gaskets on these vans. If you over heated it bad enough it could have caused damage to the cylinder heads as well. It's a bad deal when it happens. The red warning light goes on for a reason to stop driving them. with out seeing it It's hard to say but if the system is full of coonat and the over flow bottle is full as well and it over heats right away it's a a head gasket failure 9 out of 10 times.