95 F-150 302. My son called last night and said that the engine was smoking and someone told him that it coolant on the engine that caused it. He did try to restart and the temp gauge went straight to red. great i thought one of the hoses busted and I'll change out. Next morning looked at both the radiator hoses, nothing, both look good. The coolant though was everywhere on the ground. So I add some coolant and had him start the truck. Everything was fine, no obvious leaks from the radiator or hoses, the temp stayed normal. He drove it 5-6 miles home and the temp guage normal, no smoke out of the tail pipe, truck runs fine, no loss of power, no rough idle.

So I pulled the lower hoses when I got home and the coolant is suppose to be green but is mostly brown. So it looks like I have a head gasket problem (although I thought i would see some smoke, loss of power, gas mileage drop in half like another vehicle that I had) But to me this doesn't explain the over heating/coolant release my son experienced. Could it be that the coolant had so much oil at the time that it built pressure and blew off through the release? As you can tell I'm grasping.

So does everyone think I have a head gasket problem? Also why do you think that it spewed coolant all over the engine last night but not through a buste hose.

 

If you get the head gasket failing between a cylinder and a water gallery the combustion gasses leak into the water system at high pressure. This causes the engine to overheat within a few miles and the pressure is such that coolant will spray from rad cap or any where it can. Why it seemed OK the next day is a mystery. Do a compression check. This should show a blown head gasket if that is what it is.