small head gasket leak 190,000 on odo

what do you guys think the condition on a motor like this is in? what would a head gasket leak affect on the internals of the 1.6l?

It should be an awesome boat anchor. No telling how bad it may be damaged until ya crack it open.

Could be minor, most likely significant. Almost always rebuild able, unless cracked. Pull the head and take a look. If its damaged in the cylinder, chuck it. If its only the head, get a valve job and shave and put it back together. Me, I'd do a compression test first to decide if the bottom end is solid.

First, how do you know the head gasket is leaking?

A leak-down will tell you a lot. Do a leak down, with radiator full. If the water gets pushed out the open radiator, you definitely have a blown head gasket.

Pull the plugs and see if they have water on them.
Drain the oil and see if it's milky.
Drain coolant to see if it's oily.
Was the engine over-heated? If so you likely have a warped head. Minimum you will need to rebuild the head. With 190k on the motor, I'd do a motor swap if that's the case.

awesome guys! well i bought the car and its a nice little '90. i'm mostly pleased for what i got for the price i paid for it. well, the guy changed the head gasket before i went and looked at the car (proof was that he showed me the old gasket that had small gauche in the back side). so i drove it freshly after it was installed. i noticed that the car ran like it needed to catch its breath, then it ran okay and back and forth, after a few trips down the road it stopped doing that.. but on my way back home the car started running pretty damn rough, motor was really jolt-y (motor mounts i thought). but i also forgot to mention that seller believed it was the catalytic converter that was probably the problem with the lagg-feel. im gonna check the cat convert. and maybe replace it, same with motor mounts other than that, any other thoughts? if those dont fix the problem i will get right to looking for a 1.8 and call it a day.