Ted

There is probably nothing wrong with your gauge; it can only measure the
temperature of the engine coolant, so if you suddenly lost all the coolant
due to a blown hose, your gauge is not going to work. If you stopped the
engine as soon as you indicated, it is doubtful that any harm was done to
the engine. The pop noise could have been from coolant contacting the hot
catalytic converter.
So just have the leak fixed, and take it from there.


<statcode@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1140049793.384307.138330@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi everyone,
>
> We were driving our 1985 Ford Thunderbird on the freeway when we
> noticed smoke billowing out behind us. We pulled off as soon as
> possible and just before we turned it off it sounded like it backfired.
>
>
> The car still starts fine and there is a leak where the engine is
> spewing coolant (or something.) There is a large puddle underneath
> the car. We couldn't find where the engine was leaking coolant
> because it looked like it was occuring underneath the engine.
>
> I assume this is a blown radiator hose. We are afraid that the pop was
> the block cracking or something equally catastrophic.
>
> When we restarted the car for a few seconds the temperature gauge was
> in the center but we didn't notice it overheating at all before the
> smoke started.
>
> Are there any suggestions on how to proceed? Is the engine blown?
> Does the Ford Thunderbird have a hose that would leak 'underneath' the
> engine?
>
> Thanks for help in advance. We are going to try to replace the
> radiator hoses and temperature gauge today as that seems the most
> logical place to start.
>