Car overheated today....

[1105]

There was a festival down on the beach today and I was driving around trying to find a parking spot. Pulled into a parking lot after sitting awhile in traffic, not paying attention to the temp gauge because it was on the O when I was driving around, then I stop and talk to a friend and not more than 5 sec later I see steam shooting out from under my hood! I shut the car off right away, pop the hood and coolant is shooting out everywhere from the radiator cap I let it sit and do its thing, start it up for a few sec just to put it into the parking spot right next to where it died then filled it back up with water and left it there for hours and hours while I was with some friends... On my way home the temp gauge read on the O, nothing felt different in the way the car acted so I hope that nothing got hurt. I checked my fan (which is what I think caused it) but it was only unplugged about 2mm out... Would that far out cause the fan not to turn on?

 

[I3lack5unshine]

My temp gauge doesnt work half the time...last week I drove all the way to work(26 miles) with it blazing hot...didnt mess a single thing up...come to find out the water pump was dead....As far as the fan...mine dont work right unless its plugged all the way in either

 

[ARed1995GT]

ya man once i got that fan recall fixed i drove home and looked at temp gauge, it was on the f'ing H, overheated bad, shut car off, coolant was going everywhere, had the car towed and brought back to ford, they gave me a free tank of gas n fixed it lol

 

[yellow1995Cobra]

When you start shooting coolant out of the rad, its usually a blown HG since the compression is being forced into the cooling system.

Was there any white smoke out the exhaust on the way home?

 

[phatboysh]

If the coolant was spitting out because one of your radiator lines popped off due to excessive heat, I would say your fan was the problem. There should be a check engine light in any case however... do you have a scanner to see what codes it's throwing? (if any?)

 

[swingline]

It sounds like a blown head gasket. There was excess compression that had to find a way out, so it decided to go through your cooling system. Was there any white smoke coming out of your tailpipes?

 

[slvrbullit302]

Sounds to me like the ole fan is taking a dump on you, two months after I had the recall done on mine the motor seized up on it while waiting to get in line at the track, this was in the middle of winter so I had the car running with the heat on and all of a sudden there is steam coming out from under my hood. Popped the hood and the fan was siezed so bad that you could not turn it by hand. Ended up having to drive home with no fan and luckily no traffic. I got a new fan in two days from the dealership for around $180 I think.

 

[1105]

I only get white smoke when I accelerate faster than normal, other than that nothing comes out. Whenever I'm driving down the road its fine because there is air flowing through the radiator, but at a stop nothing I think because of the fan. I took that recall thing out last night but didnt want to see if that was the problem yet. I dont really see how I could have a blown head gasket because I havent beaten on the car since the last time I replaced one of them.

 

[94TURBO5 O]

Damn dude sorry to hear about that and it happens at the beach that sux. Let your car run while watching your temp gauge and wait to see when your fan turns on.

 

[yellow1995Cobra]

The fact that there IS white smoke coming out the tail pipes means coolant is somehow getting into the combustion chamber. Either via a blown HG or a bad lower intake gasket. If you installed one of the HG's upside down, it would cause heating issues, or if you didnt thread seal the lower bolts you might have some coolant getting into the combustion chamber that way. In either case it could just be install error...

Like i told you before.. Pop the rad cap off, and run the car, see if your getting air bubbles or not.

When i blew the second HG my upper rad hose blew off from the compression in the cooling system.

Your symptoms point to a HG though.. sorry to say.. we all hate changing them.

 

[1105]

I checked the fan today when I got home from work and it was running. I'm going to check the radiator for bubbles tomorrow. I had a chitty torque wrench when I put my head back on... Think I could take out the bottom bolts, put some better thread sealer on them, and stick them back in without any problems? I dont want to change the head gasket again so If I could just pull one out at a time and re install it that wouldnt be that bad. I dont think its leaking from my intake but I'll retorque thoes too.