As I pulled into my driveway I noticed a funny smell and smoke from my hood. After I opened the hood I saw coolent ALL OVER. The insulation on the hood itself was completely soaked, and just about everything else was covered in coolent. I noticed steam coming from the T-stat housing and saw that the top stud had snapped. After I relieved the pressure by slowly opening the resivour cap, I looke at the damage. All that looked wrong was the snapped stud, so I figured I needed new coolent anyway and I drained the last pint out of the radiator. After spending about ten minutes trying to get the stud out without damageing the threads, I took it to the local ace hardwhere and got a replacement. I got two gallons of coolent and some gasket maker as well as the bolt all for $18 using my friends 20% off card. I re-sealed the T-Stat housing and bolted it back on. I put a gallon of coolent in through the filler cap on the engine, and another gallon and a half in through the resivour. After drying just about everything I could, I put all the covers and air intake back on. After spraying off my driveway for ten minutes, I started her up and she drove fine. I let it get warm enough for the T-stat to open and no problems yet. My main question is: Does coolent hurt belts? It got on my serpentine belt as well as my timing belt. Other than that I thought I would post my adventure for the week and see what you guys thought. I still cant believe that it only cost me $18 to fix the problem. I wonder what the stealer would have charged me??
Sorry about the double post. I am not sure how to delete the other one.