Pressure in radiator is compression to water jacket, from blow by. From the start you had and serious mechanical failure. If you want to avoid further damage you stop driving asap. The head needs to be removed to assess the extent of damage. Or you can drive it to complete failure.
Assumptions, but fair ones. Earlier 2AZ engines are known to have this issue.
It doesn't really matter if it's a BHG or the head bolt issue, it's a head off job and something you'll need a mechanic for.
Which is why the TK test should be done first, if it fails there's no point going any further since the head job would cost more than the value of the car.
If it passes...well that's a different story...
I had this experience recently with my BMW 530 (M54) after replacing the thermostat which failed less than 20,000km later.
I refused to accept it could be faulty...but... I was wrong. In the process of me looking at every other cooling system component but the thermo , the car overheated three times.
It has an alloy head.
After the 3rd time I got a TK test done since I still could not find the leak & a rebuild would have cost $4,500.
By some miracle the head was OK though. The cooling systems on older BMW are notoriously difficult to tame, they're mostly plastic & prone to get air locks which blows expansion tanks
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