I'll try to be as thorough as I can, thanks for help in advance. Car is 35th anny manual, mostly stock except larger air intake and the 10% overcharge pulley from the previous owner, 215k miles on the clock - original owner did an engine rebuild at around 200k although obviously I can't verify what all was done or how complete, just kinda trusting that things were done/done right.
Headed home from work outside of Denver late last night around 10 pm, 15 degree clear weather. I'll be completely forthright - I knew I should have let it warm up first but I did a couple pulls because the cold air at this altitude lets the supercharger run better and I wanted to have some fun after work. Anyway, I'm on the highway cruising at around 65-70 when the heat starts giving out and I'm like "oh great did the heater core go" but then I start seeing white smoke billowing out the rearview. I turned off the heat, and then the same smoke starts billowing out the vents, notably the defroster vents. I get closer to home and hit a red light and I see there's white smoke coming out from under the hood. I'm almost home when the CEL finally kicks on. I get it parked in my carport and shut it off immediately. Open the hood, smoke everywhere, when it clears out it's pretty apparent that coolant's been blowing everywhere. The coolant reservoir was dry so I poured some extra in just to feel like I was doing something - at the very least I don't think it would hurt to add some.
edit: one more thing, obviously once I noticed there was an issue I didn't push the car very hard but I want to say that I did not notice a loss in power, or a rough idle when stopped.
I let it sit overnight because it was ~~~~ing cold and I wasn't sure what to do and I didn't want to burn my hand on anything while the car was hot. I'm about to check the oil for milkiness and crank it over to see if there's an obvious coolant spray coming from somewhere. Please let me know what else I should check myself before I bite the bullet and take it to a shop. If it is the head gasket, I'd like to at least try and replace it myself, and if that ends up being the case, can anyone point me to a detailed guide? I've been searching all last night and this morning and generally all I can find are people essentially asking 'what do i do,' but I'm not seeing any guides posted anywhere.
edit 2: A HA. I believe I have found my culprit, which, on the face of it, should be a lot easier than a HG repair. I'll leave this linked to see if anyone can identify which hose it is while I pore over my manual - I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me a rundown on how to access it easily.
Headed home from work outside of Denver late last night around 10 pm, 15 degree clear weather. I'll be completely forthright - I knew I should have let it warm up first but I did a couple pulls because the cold air at this altitude lets the supercharger run better and I wanted to have some fun after work. Anyway, I'm on the highway cruising at around 65-70 when the heat starts giving out and I'm like "oh great did the heater core go" but then I start seeing white smoke billowing out the rearview. I turned off the heat, and then the same smoke starts billowing out the vents, notably the defroster vents. I get closer to home and hit a red light and I see there's white smoke coming out from under the hood. I'm almost home when the CEL finally kicks on. I get it parked in my carport and shut it off immediately. Open the hood, smoke everywhere, when it clears out it's pretty apparent that coolant's been blowing everywhere. The coolant reservoir was dry so I poured some extra in just to feel like I was doing something - at the very least I don't think it would hurt to add some.
edit: one more thing, obviously once I noticed there was an issue I didn't push the car very hard but I want to say that I did not notice a loss in power, or a rough idle when stopped.
I let it sit overnight because it was ~~~~ing cold and I wasn't sure what to do and I didn't want to burn my hand on anything while the car was hot. I'm about to check the oil for milkiness and crank it over to see if there's an obvious coolant spray coming from somewhere. Please let me know what else I should check myself before I bite the bullet and take it to a shop. If it is the head gasket, I'd like to at least try and replace it myself, and if that ends up being the case, can anyone point me to a detailed guide? I've been searching all last night and this morning and generally all I can find are people essentially asking 'what do i do,' but I'm not seeing any guides posted anywhere.
edit 2: A HA. I believe I have found my culprit, which, on the face of it, should be a lot easier than a HG repair. I'll leave this linked to see if anyone can identify which hose it is while I pore over my manual - I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me a rundown on how to access it easily.
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