91ford302

Ok so I just got home from work. I shut my car off and get out and all of a sudden i hear this hissing and smoke is pouring out of the hood. I ran inside and grabbed a flashlight and looked but i cant find what the heck happened. There is coolant around the distributor on top of the timing cover and lower on the pulleys and such.

Originally I was thinking that one of my coolant hoses let go, but i cannot see anything. I started the car back up and nothing is spraying or hissing and the temperature was fine.

Could my intake manifold gasket let go? or maybe a head gasket? I would think i would have seen some other signs of this, but there is the white crap inside the oil fill tube that i believe is signature of coolant being burned in the engine. I watch my coolant gauge often and it never overheats... I rebuilt the engine almost 4 years ago now and have had no coolant problems in the past.

Any help would be appreciated. What do you think it is, what are my options, and is my engine toast?

91ford302

i was thinking maybe the thermostat housing gasket let go. It is a bitch to see the bottom of it and it was too hot to feel it when this actually happened.

Has anyone had a similar problem or maybe heard of this happening?

gt884me

i had a similar problem....mine ended up bieng the front bead of silicone sprung a leak on the front of the upper intake.....sounds like the thermo to me....id start there

91ford302

wow this forum is a lot more dead than it used to be...

anyway... How bout this? What if I use one of those pressure testers you put on the radiator cap. Would that likely cause a noise or push coolant out where the leak is so i can find it?

mustangsneverdie

check the small hose that run from the water pump to the thermo housing