M42 profile gasket casualty

[cheesebox]

My 318is died yesterday. It started drinking water and overheating a couple of days ago, with no obvious signs of where water was escaping from, and the oil looked fine. It's got 82K on the clock.

Now when I fill the radiator, water pours out from the side of the engine, near the coil pack but lower down. I assume it's the profile gasket that's gone. Does this sound about right? I've a nasty feeling it was never replaced under warranty (it still had the original style timing chain tensioner when I got it last year at 72K miles - would have expected that to have been replaced).

I was thinking about calling the AA to tow me to a garage, but then I thought they'd probably insist on trying to "repair" it with Barr's Leaks or something similar. Is there a risk of permanently clogging the system and heater matrix if they do this, or can the clag be removed later with radiator flush?

Arse. I'm gonna be eating gruel for the next 3 months.