Hey guys new here, usually hang out on my Taurus boards but looking around for some help

Well my girlfriend's father's van finally gave him enough trouble that he went and got a replacement car but I'd like to see if I can figure out what's wrong with it to maybe at least sell it for a bit more than the 55 bucks the junkyard will give him. Or I could use it for a bit.

Especially since I have a feeling its an easy fix (we sorta suspected HGs but don't think that's right anymore)

Ok here are the problems

The car is overheating, when at idle it doesn't really seem to, but when driven it overheats.
Its losing water but doesn't seem to have any leaks from hoses, and it doesn't seem to be the heater core, we can't smell burning coolant from inside.
It also has no heat though blows real real cold air, sometimes might warm up for a second or two but then it gets back to being cold.

So have any thoughts, I've been looking at threads of Tauruses with similar problems and I've seen everything from the water pump, thermostat, and heater core.

I think right now I'm leaning more toward the water pump.

It has a 3.3L v6 and AWD

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any white smoke at the tailpipe?
do you have to top up the antifreeze everyday/once a week?
have they checked/changed the thermostat

the best way would be to check the plugs if antifreeze is being burnt the plugs will have a white wash to them not a brown rust colour

 

There is some white smoke from the tail pipe, it seems to be lots of water vapor though, no oil smoke. It's losing coolant/water pretty quick and the thermostat hasn't been checked, I had thought of that but didn't really know if that could be responsible for all those symptoms.

I'm going to be checking the hoses when I get over there today to see if the rad hoses are warm or cold and so I'll add the spark plug check to my to do list.

 

If thenvan has the rear heater and air conditioner option the coolant could be leaking out of the cracked or broken coolant tubes under the van.These tubes are made of steel and have no protective coating on them so they will eventually rust through from the outside.I just replaced the ones on my wife's van with ten feet of 5/8 inch heater hose.I was losing coolant also but at a much slower rate,then they ruptured and all the coolant was lost in just a few minutes.
You can check these for problems by warming the van,turning on the rear heat and watching for leaks to develop.The leak will be on the drivers side.You can get the van home by shutting off the heat at the rear heater control.This will buy you a little more time.