Well I went out cruising a couple weeks ago with a friend and there was a sudden smell of coolant. Pulled off and saw a heater hose was split. I was about 6 blocks from home so I risked the drive back. As i was pulling onto my block the temp gauge shot up into the red so i coasted the car into the driveway, popped the hood, and let it cool off. The next day showed the culprit:



2017.09.10 - heater hose by George Fayad on 500px.com


So i figured, with the cooling system being all but drained at this point, i'd go ahead and replace the thermostat housing and drop to an 80c thermostat as well. Replaced the hose, tstat and housing and bled the system. Couldn't get heat at idle after tons of bleeding. Finally ran the car for a while and after about 15 minutes it started to push water out of the radiator. Revving up the motor did nothing to either pull water back or push it out harder so I'm wondering if the water pump is also toast. It always had a hard time keeping at temp in traffic so it may have been the water pump this whole time after all. I went ahead and ordered a new pump and will be pulling the old one out tonight or tomorrow to see what the impeller looks like. I should have just done the pump when i did the thermostat.