Every few days I have to fill up my reservoir.Is coolant suppose to spill out of the radiator cap if I twist it when its hot? Could it be a faulty cap?

On some days I see a very fine white smoke coming from around the middle section of my block on the passenger side. Any ideas?

 

Sounds like a headgasket issue. Colant is under extremely high pressure. It gets hotter than the boiling point of water, so it needs to be under pressure so it wont boil, when you de-pressureize the cooling system, the water all boils. Do not remove the rad. cap when hot!! You will burn the **** out of yourself!!


[Modified by nfn15037, 9:14 PM 2/9/2003]

 

headgasket? any other areas I should check out?

 

I mean, its gonna be pretty obvous if its anything else. There are only a few ways to loose coolant. Check the radiator for cracks as well as the hoses, if you dont find anything, chances are its the headgasket.

 

if you aint leaking fluid... through your exhaust yO! change the headgasket pronto.

 

REmove your Oil filler cap on your valve cover and look at the underside. If you see a white frothy build up (mechanics call it "peanut butter"). You have a BLOWN headgasket. This is where your coolant is going (mixing with your oil).

 

another way to check to see if your headgasket is holding pressure, start your car with the radiator cap off.. if coolant is shooting out off the radator its your headgasket.. if you recently just installed the headgasket then you have a soft spot on either the deck of the block or the head.. only way to fix that is to resurface the head and deck the block, any machine shop can do that.