My van recently over heated when I parked it from a 20 mile freeway drive. It did not show that it was getting hot on the temp gague. It seems to be losing coolant, but there are no obvious leaks and the motor oil is clean, not milky. I drove it a short ways to the store again after that at slow speeds and the temp gague showed that it was getting hot.

Any ideas?

 

A t-stat sticking closed or blown head gasket come to mind.

 

I forgot to mention that the coolant inside of the radiator sounded like it was boiling...still sound like a t-stat? Or do I have bigger problems?? I haven't had a chance to work on it yet between working like crazy and all of the CRAPPY weather!

 

Both a t-stat sticking closed or blown head gasket will do this.

 

I have had a water pump blade come apart and did the same thing too. Remove the t-stat see if it still overheats. if it does then its not the t-stat.

 

Finally fixed the problem! I turned out to be a heater hose end cap of all things. When ever I was pressing down on the gas, the end cap had a small break that would sqirt coolant out. I couldn't figure out where the coolant was going, as it was squirting perfectly away from the engine and onto the road as I was driving. It wasn't until the hose was shifted and started squirting onto the manifold that I found the problem....

Thanks for the help guys!