Well, yesterday afternoon as I was going to my friends house, when I got off the free way, I noticed smoke coming out of the passenger side of the hood. I was still a couple of miles away from my destination, so I turned the AC to MAX to pull heat away from the engine, and drove the rest of the way avoiding RPMs above 4000, at this point I though I was overheating, even though I recognized the candy like smell of burn coolant. When I got to my friends house I opened the hood and saw a fine mist of coolant sprayed over the bottom left corner of my valve cover EXACTLY where the radiator cap is at. At that point I though the worst since I didnt see any cracks/holes/slits on the upper rad hose, or liquid in the thermostat area. Then I noticed that the radiator cap was wet with the coolant to, so I knew it had to be coming from there.

I've already decided to replace the upper and lower radiator hoses as they may never been changed before. Im also replacing the thermostat and rad cap. But what would be the worst case scenario? What would cause the pressure to rise so much, as to spray out of the rad. cap. The car wasn't over heating, as it smoked again on the way home and the needle did not move past the mid point. I was just reading up on the archives that it may possibly be a blown head gasket? I am definetly not fit financially to tacke that problem righ now, if that was to happen I think ide have to let my Piece-O-Junk sit for quite a bit until I can afford to get that fixed. And no I havent been able to open the cap since yesterday, when I use my car its mainly because I am in a hurry to get some where, and when I head back fro that somewhere I'm in a hurry to get home, so the car was always hot, and I didnt want to risk 2nd degree burns from shooting coolant liquid.

The areas sprayed with green color are the general areas where I found coolant:

put some new gaskets on the thermostat housing, I had a similar issue a while ago

Turning the A/C on max will only make the engien run hotter. Turning on the heat will give you additional cooling.

What is that running across your exhaust manifold in what looks like protective heat wrap?

looks like an engine grounding kit.
As far as your leaking issues, I'd bet a gasket or the cap itself has gone bad, if it can't hold pressure your coolant will boil easier and spray out, go ahead and change everything you mentioned, should take care of the issue. since you're in there may as well flush out the cooling system and replace heater hoses too, those can go bad and cause a good scare

Originally posted by Star Turbo Talon
Turning the A/C on max will only make the engien run hotter. Turning on the heat will give you additional cooling.

Yeah...

Check that gasket to see if it's still good. If not, you're probably going to have to buy a sheet of gasket material and cut it to fit (I couldn't find any that made it precut).

Edit: Lol, words of wisedom. Good times.

Originally posted by dsmmyth
Yeah... Check that gasket to see if it's still good. If not, you're probably going to have to buy a sheet of gasket material and cut it to fit (I couldn't find any that made it precut).

O'Reilly's > *

I picked up the proper gasket from O'Reilly's whenever I rebuilt the head on my car about a year ago.

Yea, I did put it all the way on hot, I thought that'd be obvious :P , What sucks is that I had just flushed the fluid a few weeks before I did the timing, at which time I had to pay for THAT coolant to be put in, and now I got to do it again.

Im being cautious, and shifting at no more than 4k rpm on my way to the trolley everymorning, as I cant really tell how much coolant I'm really loosing (like I said haven't had a chance to take the cap off, without the chance of it blowing on me)I only drive like 4 miles a day, so Im HOPING i dont screw something up. If I were to do this friday Ide have to get up freaking early, I hate finals week...

Anywho, any one elses city setting record highs in temperature? Fuck what happened to "May Grey"? and im fucking driving around with the gosh darn heater on... God hates me...

You drive 4 miles a day and you can't find time for it to cool down?

Oh, and I could not find the thermostat housing gasket anywhere either. I got the one that bolts the radiator hose piece onto the housing, but not the gasket to bolt it to the head. I heard you can only get that gasket from the dealership.

I got the gasket from the housing to the head when I worked at checker auto, I think I had to look it up as a dodge avenger, t-stat gasket too, pretty much if you can't find the right parts for a NT Eclipse/Talon, ask for a 4cyl avenger

Originally posted by totaleclipse_05
You drive 4 miles a day and you can't find time for it to cool down? Oh, and I could not find the thermostat housing gasket anywhere either. I got the one that bolts the radiator hose piece onto the housing, but not the gasket to bolt it to the head. I heard you can only get that gasket from the dealership.

Nope, now take the fact that the coolant gets hotter FASTER due to the loss of pressure. My first class is at 7:15am, so I wake up at 5:30-6am to get my materials and lunch ready. I get to the trolley station at 6:45 to arrive at school at 7am, I have classes from that time until 3:35pm, with only enough time to walk from one class to the other. 3:35 comes around at which point I haven't ate all day, so I heat up my food and stuff as much grub in my mouth as I can so I can make it to work at 4pm. I work at the library at school. I get out of work at 10pm. The trolley route frequency past 6pm is doubled, so I have to wait half an hour to GET the trolley, another 15min to get home. Lets say I get home at 11pm, Its been atleast around 7hours since my last meal, I get home, eat, take a shower get some HW done, and hit the sack. Aside from being pitch dark in the middle of the night, not to mention I park my car not to close to my house, since each house has 2+ cars infront of them, I dont feel like dicking around with the car, I just dont have the energy. Now tell me, where do I get tiem from during the school days? Mind your, Im always in a hurry.

I am only In or AROUND my car for THOSE 4miles, the rest of the day Im more than 30 miles away from it, or when I AM close to it, being parked outside my house I am ready to die of tiredness.

Hell ya, I found it, finally. It wasn't the thermostat, or any of the radiator hoses, or even the radiator cap, it was the 3in. long piece of hose from the thermostat housing to the hardline infront of the valve cover. A pin size hole, and when in high RPMs shot the coolant WAY THE FUCK HIGH! I was at a park chilaxing, when I decided to takea look. Turned the car on poped the hood open and reved it up by opening the TB by hand. Boom long ass super soaker size squirt of green liquid goes up 6 feet in the air. Now I just have to figure out what size hose to buy.

Originally posted by edxmon
Anywho, any one elses city setting record highs in temperature? Fuck what happened to "May Grey"? and im fucking driving around with the gosh darn heater on... God hates me...

try driving an old jaguar in 103* temps with the heater on just to keep it from blowing up just cause it wasn't designed for that kind of heat, I even kept the hood popped since it was a front hinge hood. now that sucks