Yup, #2 is the determining symptom.
When he takes that head off, he needs to try and lift it off all in one go. He should look carefully at the head gasket to see if he can spot where it was broken and leaking. If he can't, he needs to consider tearing it down and having the block checked. His engine restarted, so I'm inclined to think it'll be alright with a new gasket. My Suburban had no compression after my son parked it in the driveway. Fortunately, he pulled it up close to the garage.
My son said the same thing when he got the Suburban so hot it cracked the block. I rebuilt the engine and didn't magnaflux the block and had symptom #2.He got home yesterday saying it was smoking out the exhaust but didn’t overheat (per the dash gauge).
When he takes that head off, he needs to try and lift it off all in one go. He should look carefully at the head gasket to see if he can spot where it was broken and leaking. If he can't, he needs to consider tearing it down and having the block checked. His engine restarted, so I'm inclined to think it'll be alright with a new gasket. My Suburban had no compression after my son parked it in the driveway. Fortunately, he pulled it up close to the garage.