On my way to school I was driving down the interstate and my temperature never gets above 180 really. I saw it moved to around the 190 200 area and kind of thought that was awkward. I was doing about 65 and drove another 2 miles and saw it was at 240 and climbing. I immediately put it in neutral, coasted to the side, turned it off. Friend drove by and had some distilled water in his truck. The raidiator took about half a gallon to get it back to the top. The over flow tank was about half full.

Started it back up and it went back down to around 180 and I drove it the rest of the way to school without it getting over 180..

Possible probems.
1. Have a radiator leak or bad radiator?
2. Have a bad water pump?
3. Blown head gasket? Checked oil and I didn't think it looked chocolate milky...

Trying to decide where to start and what to do...
(This is in my 2001 dodge ram 360. 4x4. And the heating core (I think) has been having a gurgling issue when I started it for about 5 minutes and would gurgle a little more when I gave it gas. So maybe water was leaking due to it? (My floor board has no antifreeze in it.)

 

The coolant level in your radiator is low. Check it and top it off as needed.

 

ya but it's low because of a leak no? Would the low level of water cause the gurgling in the heater core?

 

Yeah it could because air in the system, would fill up the radiator and burp it see if the gurgling goes away and just keep checking the level to see if its leaking

 

Okay, looked like there was a little of what I hope is water right below the front of the engine on top of the front axle (Don't think its oil). I thought when the water pump went bad their was a little whole at the bottom it would bleed out of and thought maybe it was falling on top of the front axle. It was fresh something .

 

The weep hole is at the bottom of where the shaft is.

 

So if it was leaking out water at the weep hole is the water pump bad?

 

The gurggling and temp spikes tell me that you have air in the cooling system. There is a DIY thread on "burping" the cooling system

 

Yes, that means your water pump is on the way out. Best get a replacement soonest, or she'll shee-it on you at a very inopportune time.