[tyrodtom]

If you were driving the car around spitting water it could have easily blown a headgasket, or even worse cracked a head. When you run a car low on water the head gets reduced water flow first, and the head is where most of the heat in a engine is made. A compression test will test for a blown headgasket, but a cracked head usually won't leak until the engine is hot, so a compression test won't necessarily catch that problem, but a coolant test for exhaust fumes in the coolant will.