I just bought the car off of my brother and he was having a similar problem to mine where the car was overheating and he got the headgasket fixed but i just took it out for the first time after i got it from him and after 30min of driving it started hissing and the temp went above the H on the temp gauge so i pulled over and smoke was coming from where the coolent was and it was hissing and the cap to the coolent was almost melting.....im hoping its not the same problem that my brother had.....can it be the radiator or the thermostat?

 

When it overheats like that, the engine will often crack or warp so a new gasket won't fix it, you'd need a new engine.

I suggest filling the radiator completely (you can just use plain water for now) when cold, open the bleed screw and let the air out of the head then close the bleed screw but leave the radiator cap off. Now start the engine and rev it up some, if you get a lot of gas bubbling out of the radiator, there is leakage inside the engine.

If that test passses then I'd change the thermostat and test drive again. Make sure the fan comes on when it sits idling for a while. Fan should come on before the temp gauge starts to move above the normal halfway point.

 

k ill try that ill get back wit the results when i can...thanks for your help

 

k i just started it up be4 and the fans werent going on at idle and the gauges for the temp and gas were all the way down and the car seemed like it was dying out it would idle then slow down then idle then slow down so i pulled it into the drivewa and the gauges went up the temp went back up to hot and the gas to half way but the fans still werent going on

 

Well it seems there's an electrical problem as well. The gas and temperature gauges are both powered from the same source and that seems to be intermittent.

If you unplug the temperature sensor on the thermostat housing and jumper between the two wires in the plug, the radiator fan should come on as soon as you turn the key on and stay on. You can run it like that for a while to see if it stays cool.