Spewing urQ radiator

[raf40@oes.amdahl.com (Richard Funnell)]

Help,

Tonight on the way home from work, I stopped for a quick errand.  As I
stepped out of the car ('83 urQ), steam started rising from the left edge
of the hood.  I opened it, and saw that it was coming from under the
pressure cap on the expansion tank.  As I watched, it stopped suddenly.
About 15 min later, I restarted the car and drove home (another 15 min).
Nothing strange happened.

When I got home, I checked and the fan clicked on after I'd stopped the
engine.  It went back off after a couple minutes.  The temp light never
came on.  I also checked the fan using the ac relay, and that worked fine.
I opened the expansion tank and the fluid boiled and gurgled, and the tank
ended up almost empty with about 1/2" of coolant at the bottom.

The only ideas I can come up with are bad expansion tank cap ($) or blown
head gasket ($$$).  Any ideas?  Thanks for any input.


Richard Funnell,
Product Marketing
Amdahl Corporation, A+ Software Group   Tel:    (408) 992-2265
1250 East Arques Avenue, (M/S 316)      Fax:    (408) 992-3220
Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3470, USA           Email:  raf40@oes.amdahl.com