Mitsubishi: Overheating and damage it may have caused, zero compression, head gasket

Question
I have a 1991 mitsubishi elclipse 2 dr (don't know engine size)> I was driving on freeway when temp flew into hot zone and then pulled off freeway immediately as car seemed to want to hault. No doubt car was way overheated as steam was pouring from under hood.  I had it towed to house and waited for it to cool few hours to be safe before adding water to restart. Here's the best part. Car won't start, it has power but  engine just making spinning noise.  Please advise if this is an engine seige(total junk) or Let me know what if at all I can check if still salvage vehicle for me.  

Answer
Hello Grego!

Well, it does seem like a dismal situation. If the engine is just spinning it could mean blown head gasket. So cheer up! Take the distributor cap off and see if it turns while cranking the engine. Though this would have to be a pretty bad blown head gasket, the spinning indicates zero compression in any cylinder. I've seen worse! If the distributor does not spin, then we need to check the likely broken timing belt. If the timing belt is broken, it could have left all cylinders with an open valve. This will cause zero compression. Depending on the engine in your car, it is entirely possible to replace the timing belt and away you go. Though, some engines will distroy it's top end (Head) and pistons, bend connecting rods, blow out bearings in the lower end among other very interesting, mechanical type things. You probably have a good shot at coming out clean on this. Get a cold beer, because it makes this a lot easier, do the dist. cap thing, check the oil and coolent for things that shouldn't be there and please let me know what you found! Look for a white film on the dipstick and radiator cap. Easy stuff...