i had disappearing coolant w/ no leaks, what happened was my w/p was leaking on to my hot out pan so it was burning up before it could leave a puddle, but there's a nice greenish/yellow mark on my oil pan.
i will tell you my symptoms when i had blown head gaskets. I would be driving normally watching the temp gradually go up, and if i got on it, i would see my temp gauge rise extremely fast... Also, i had allitle more smoke coming out of one tube than the other, i didnt know if this was just regular condensation or not. It was antifreeze, your exhaust will smell kindof "sweet" and "hang" in the air longer than typical condensated exhuast. I would have a bubbling radiator resevoir, this was becuase i was getting compression gases into my water jacket. I did NOT have any water in my oil, my oil was clean as could be. Also, when i tried to burp the system, it would suck it reallylow, and then push out all the antifreeze that i would try to put back in the system. I also lost my heat after a few days of driving becuase of lack of antifreeze... This isnt what i wanted to hear... I did everything before i actually did the head gasket as i would tell you to do, change your thermostat to a lower temperature, this seems to prolong the overheating. check your water pump out. try flushing your radiator, check you fan. you had the exact problems i did, and i hope the best to you...
on a response to the radiator burping posts. he is having the exact problems i was having, it would suck it down then just push it back out with GALLONS and i mean gallons of antifreeze flushed through it.... that is not the problem...
third post sorry, compression test confirmed my head gasket leak, also, try a leak down test, but in my case, it didnt leak down any and the test came back fine.. I had a block test and it came back positive for exhuast gases in coolant. compression has to be around 10% in play with all the other cylinders, if not, you have a problem.
I had been driving on an empty overflow tank for a while, could that cause air to get into my radiator? i noticed that when i had my car running and the radiator cap off, when it would warm up, the coolant level would jump around, it would first drop then all of a sudden jump up and leak all over the floor, then go back down again, is that normal? Or is that the air in the lines?
When it starts going up and down and spilling out and going back down that's when you are really burping the radiator. Just watch the radiator ans stand there with a gallon of coolant or water or a 50/50 mix and just keep the radiator topped off as best you can. I mean really just let it go up and down for a few cycles. That's the air working out.
Make sure you keep your overflow full..that's how air gets in.