first let me give you the background... i was driving my car last week for the first time in quite some time and after i put it back in the garage, maybe 5 mins after i shut it off, the radiator overflowed... i'm 99% sure this was due to a loose radiator cap as i think i checked the radiator a few weeks earlier and it was full (was checking due to a lack of heat, which im pretty sure is a clogged h-core) anyway... i dont think i tightened the cap all the way back on? because after the car cooled down and i was able to see why the radiator overflowed out the cap (yes out the cap) i was able to tighten the cap about 1/2 a turn....

so now heres the problem.... i added coolent then... and i have added a bit since then (my low coolant light actually came on yesterday when i took the car out of the garage)... it was at a body shop for a week, but i dont think it spewed or leaked any there, and here's the weirdest thing...

i topped the car off last night after i parked it in the garage... this morning i checked it, and it was low enough to where i could see the fins or whatever is down about 2 inches from the top of the radiator cap... so obviously it went somerwhere.... but there is no coolant on the ground, and i didnt run the car...

the car runs fine and doesnt smoke other than the typical cold morning condensation.... as a matter of fact on friday when it was 60 degrees it didnt smoke at all... only does when its under 35ish...

the oil is clean so im thinking its not a headgasket or anything, and besides, a headgasket would not cause the coolant to leak into the motor while the car is parked would it? and if it did, it would cause massive amounts of smoke on startup or starting problems in general like flooding (ive had 2 ford 3.8's one was SC'd and they both blew their HG and both would smoke on startup which the T/A isnt doing)

please help....

I hope its just air pockets or something stupid like that and because the radiator overflowed due to the cap thing, that it just needs filled one or 2 days at a time?

 

Did you follow the required air bleed procedure after topping it off? Once the coolant system gets air in it, it has to have the air removed. If the cap came loose, the hot coolant boiled. That boiling would be in the block. There's a chance after you filled the radiator, there was still a bubble in the block, and as is condensed, the contents of the radiator flowed into the block.

 

no i dont think i did... the coolant is up where it should be now.... and there were a few small bubbles but they have dissapeared....

oh and upon further examination, there is definately a coolant leak when the coolant is above a certain level as i saw it leaking earlier today when it was parked somewhere for an hr or so... then later it didnt drip any more and the low coolant light wasnt on... maybe its an upper hose or soemthing...i know i had to replace one a few years ago

 

ok this is the most bizarre thing ever... i definately lost some coolant earlier today, i saw it pissing out the bottom of the car.....that was after driving ~ 10 miles after filling up teh radiator..... then the second 3rd and 4th places i stopped, including back into my garage yielded no more coolant dripping.....

but... i just now checked the radiator and the level is right at the top.....so my fear of having a very low radiator did not happen (and yes i monitored the temp gauge like a hawk all day and it never got over 210)

could i have overfilled the radiator and had some spill out of somewhere? it didnt look like it came out the overflow or anything... but i was expecting the radiator to be half empty....