Hey guys, a sad note brings me here. For the past year I have been sick of my car overheating at the wierdest of times. First time it overheated (went into red and the light came on) I have no clue what caused it, probably a bad fan clutch, it seemed to run ok after that until it once again started overheating. Within a year I have changed the following: fan clutch, thermostat, thermostat cover, fan blades, waterpump and of course got new coolant in. Within this week I've noticed that after standing at idle for a while, the temp would start slowly going up, upon turning the AC on, it would come right down (I figured the emergency electrical fan wasn't working for some reason). The check coolant level warning would sometimes come up on the OBC after I shut the engine off, this morning I checked the coolant level and it was maybe 3 inches above the "Full" mark. Since the car was praked on an decline, I just thought the coolant came down to the expansion tank and it should be ok.
Later on today I had to drive through 2 hours or more of stop and go traffic. It wasn't too hot out (maybe in the 90s), I had the windows down, I noticed the temp started slowly crawling up, I turned the AC on and it returned to normal, I think I just kept the AC on for the most part.
Then I parked the car, came back to it maybe an hour later and headed home. I was doing around 60 mph on the high way for around 10 minutes and everything was fine. I had to cross a bridge and as I approached the On-Ramp, i got stuck in a traffic jam which lasted for probably 5 minutes. As soon as I aslowed down I smelled the coolant. Within a minute or two the temp gauge started crawling again, I put the AC on but its not helping, I truned the heat up all the way, still crawling up. Got on the bridge and while accelerating towards the middle high point of it, I noticed that there was not hot air coming out of the vents, it was same temperature as the outside (engine block is dry of coolant at this point). I started going downhill on the bridge, put her in neutral and hoped the temp would come down, it didn't, it went into the red and the light came on. There is absolutely no stopping on the bridge so I had to keep going.
I slowed down for the tolls to maybe 10 miles an hour and went off an off-ramp maybe 300 away from the tolls (the light is still on). Drove probably another 3-5 long city blocks at around 30 mph and stopped. Shut the engine off and a little bit of steam was coming out of the hood. I got 2 galons of water, poured it on the engine, unscrewed the expansion tank cap and of course it was all dry, I poured some water in there, actually probably around a gallong and a half if not more. Got in the car, checked the temp, it was at the center mark (normal). Begged her to start, she cranked right up and fired right away. I drove home (probably another 5-10 long city blocks), it was still at the center mark. Checked it out and found a few things. The fan blades were all gone (how?, why?, where?, when?, I have not a clue), the little hose from the top of the radiator going to the bleed screw was disconected at the bleed screw and was hanging down between the radiator and the fan.
Maybe the hose came off because there was too much pressure in the system and broke all the fan blades. Maybe the blades magically disapeared overheating the system and blowing the hose off. I have not a clue. When I was pouring water over the engine, I checked the oil and it didn't look white milky or anything close to that, it just smelled burnt a little (mobil one synthetic, not even 3k on it).
Guys, help me out, I don't know what to do. What are the chances of the head being warped or the head gasket being blown and is there a way to check for either or both without having touched half of the engine with my hands? I do most of the work myself so I am not sure what to do. Should I even replace the blades, the hose, thermostat and all that stuff if the head is blown. I can't afford a new head or even just paying a mechanic to tear the engine apart to check out the condition of it.
What do you all think? Any help at all is appreciated. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to be as clear and detailed as possible. Thanks in advance.