well somethin like a week ago, i swapped out my radiator because the car was overheating. turns out the used radiator i bought was crap too. today i swapped in a new radiator. no leaking....finally!i filled the system with antifreeze/water, bled the system to remove air pockets, and all seemed well. i took the car for a slow 3-4 mile city driving cruise. never got hotter than half way.i was pleased.i decided to take a drive to a neighboring city to run an errand. well about ten miles into the trip the car started getting warmer. once it hit 3/4 i pulled over because i started getting concerned. i turned off the car and sat inside for a few minutes. within those minutes the car started steaming bad. like never before. popped the hood and steam was comin from the engine, not the radiator. no water leaks either. steam seemed to be coming from the intake and passengers side head, and rear engine compartment on the passengers side. by this point im ****tin bricks ya know.we sat there for about 15 minutes and the needle was in the red. a few more min pass and the car cooled off a bit. i started it up to see if it idled rough and threw white smoke to see if a head gasket was blown. nothin. she idled fine, purred like a kitten. i decided (foolishly or not) to drive it. immediately the cars temps dropped to below half way. i made it home with no over heating. i popped the hood and i could still hear minimal steam sounds coming from intake area. its dark now but im really confused.fans come on. almost cut off a finger checking, lol. you do the math. brand new cap (zero leakage) and brand new thermostat. my buddy told me to think about maybe the possibilty of freeze plugs or heater core.my heater doesnt blow warm air. does that count for anything?im really hoping its just more air pockets but what do u all think?

 

Cold air from the heater is usually an indication that that cooling passages are clogged up, hopefully you flushed out the cooling system before putting in the new radiator, otherwise the gunk flowing around will cause it to clog. Also, make sure the air dam under the radiator is in place, check that you have a 50/50 antifreeze/water mix to prevent boil over, check for bad gaskets, and the coolant crossover pipe between the heads at rear of engine, look for leaking freeze out plugs. Depending on where a head gasket blows, it may or may not result in coolant getting into the combustion chamber and cause white smoke.