Hey guys. 1988 C4. The other day I took her on a two hour ride on mostly highway, the outside temp was 95. On the ride my temp gauge was running 227-232. When I got off the highway (running about 80) and hit some back roads (running about 45) the temp dropped back to 225 range. I parked the car at my destination for a couple of hours and when I went to leave I started the car, backed out, put it in gear and the low coolant light came on. There was no coolant in the driveway where I parked. I drove it to the store (about 3 miles) and added a half gallon of antifreeze (50:50 mix) into the overflow tank which was empty. I drove home about two hours the temps ran in the 190s for most of the trip but by the time I hit my exit the low coolant light came on and the temps climbed back up to 230. I added the remaining half gallon to the overflow. The next day I drove the car again and the temps stayed in the 215-220 range and the low coolant light came on a couple of times for a few seconds and went off. Again no coolant in the driveway. Today I went out for a short trip to the store and soon as I started the car the low coolant light came on again, figured I'd check at the store, since I didn't have coolant on me. The light stayed on until the temp reached about 190 then went off. When I got to the store there was still some coolant in the overflow (only about 2 inches) and they didn't have any antifreeze so I returned home. I did notice some smoke when the hood was open after I turned the car off coming from the top of the head on the passenger side and there was water on the top of the engine (though it rained a lot today) not sure if it was residual water burning off or what (it was not coolant). The engine still seems to run strong though I (and maybe I'm paranoid) seemed to feel like the engine may have a slight hesitation? When running at speed like the rpms drop a little every few seconds(though it does not register a drop on the tach). Any thoughts or suggestions as to where I should start to look or do? Thanks in advance.

 

Intake gasket?

I did my head gasket and you could hide a battleship behind the smoke I left behind

 

What should I look for to confirm one way or the other?

 

 

or a smoke test

 

I did my 89 head gasket a couple of years ago , I had a trail of water leaking behind me , no smoke though.

 

You could just as easily have a leak, not a gasket issue. Try pressurizing the cooling system and see if it holds pressure. Pull the plugs and do a compression check. Check the oil for coolant. One of those should confirm whether or not you have a blown head gasket or not.

Good luck.

 

Finally got a chance to take a look at the problem. Popped the hood, started the car let it warm up, saw no smoke. Took off the radiator cap and noticed the rad was really low. I added antifreeze then started to rev the engine. That's when I saw coolant mist over the intake. Turns out the culprit was a cracked heater hose. The crack was underneath so it wasn't visible from inspection. So I got a new heater hose, new clamps and a new radiator cap. When I was putting the hose in I saw something drop to the belts. I didn't see what it was and could not find it. Put everything back together started the car up and when I reved it from the throttle body I could hear a clicking when I accelerated and it went away when I wasn't reving it. Sounds like a baseball card in spokes and it's coming from the front near the belts. Unless it's something else, I guessing it's whatever dropped?