this is in laws car and i think i already know the problem but just want to make sure.......they said that the car temp gauge jumps from cold to normal back and forth and that the fan turns on for like 5-10 seconds then turns off.....now they said they were driving and started smoking (i think overheat) and that when they removed the coolant cap off and nothing but steam was coming......my guess would be thermostat ??????

 

my guess at this point is a lot more problem then just the tstat. esp if they overheated it sounds like they were low on coolant so the question is why. leak in the rad, bad hose, bad rad cap, or blown ead gasket

 

yea dad n law didnt wake me up last night to scope out the problem...instead just told me before i was on my way out to work and just called right now tellin me that it was overheating really bad

also forgot to mention ........ive been buggin him about changeing the spark plug o rings seals for the longest cause he kept puttin it off and those tubes would be filled with oil