paycheck0171

305 TBI.My son drove this car on a 100 degree Texas day and I doubt he was looking at the temp gauge. He said the first sign of trouble was steam from under the hood. Instead of calling me for help, he added water to the overflow jug and drove it about 7 miles home with it in the red. I replaced the thermostat. I think that was the original issue. Now it uses water with no obvious leak that I can find. Fan is kicking on. The air dam is in place. The radiator was replaced in April. I can watch it circulate when I add water with it running. Still has power, no misses and no smoke. No water in the oil. When you drive it for more than 15-20 minutes it still overheats. I check the coolant level and it's low again. It smells like coolant when it overheats. Do you guys think it might be a head gasket from the overheating?

acadburn

2 questions when the car runs dose it now smoke/didnt b4

or dose the exhaust smell kinda sweet?

paycheck0171

The car does not smoke now nor did it before. The odor from the car doesn't smell sweet, just the typical hot antifreeze smell.

spray004

If water is flowing well, it could be either radiator or radiator cap.

edbird4

I had a Ford with the same symptoms. Head gasket. May be something else, but I would get the head gasket checked.

Lucid

It sounds like it may be a gasket all right. If it were a cracked head or a head gasket it would probably be spewing out white smoke.

Run it up to normal operating temp and watch the hoses, radiator and other places where it could leak out. Shut off the engine and look for bubbling coolant along the intake where it mates to the heads. Also look for steam coming out of the radiator, it could be a pinhole leak in the radiator.

My tuned port kept eating up coolant and not smoking. The intake gasket at the head in the front by the thermostat bubbles up and you can see it boiling over there. On the TBI setups, it may leak at the back of the intake where you cant see it and down the back.

You would have to do a compression check to see if the head gasket is blown.

paycheck0171

I don't see any leaking around the intake gaskets. The hoses seem to be dry. I can't see any steam even though my son said he saw some the day it overheated. I'll try the compression check and the head gaskets and post again after and give a report. Thanks guys!

paycheck0171

It was a head gasket. The cooling fans would come on at idle but not driving which caused the overheating. The car runs fine with the A/C on and the fans running all the time. I hope this helps someone with the same problem.