General Maintenance & Repairs - Reads hot, engine shut down?

2000 TA ws6, pulled up to a stop light, all at once engine started cutting out, looked down and temp gauge was pegged. Pulled over and shut it of. I raised the hood, no boiling sound, no steam. Waited about 30 min., added 1/2 gal. of water (all it would hold). Started it up and drove 3 blks to the house. Heater would not blow warm on the way home even though the gauge read normal temp. Any ideas what going on?

Thanks

bad thermostat. You live in a hot place? Engine work done before? radiator flush lately? could have got an air pocket. If the thermostat wont open the blcok will get extremely hot but wont boil over because not getting back to radiator. Heater should always blow hot so thats weird. any leaks or coolant disappearing? coolant out the tail pipes?

I live in MO. I have not noticed any loss of coolent. I did notice about a week ago that it took quite some time for the heater to blow warm. The engine seems to always warm up fast (about middle gauge) and has never done this before. Where is the thermostat? I noticed after I let the car sit for 30min before I started it again it still read normal running temp.

passenger side mid engine, radiator hose runs to it.

sounds like time for a coolant change. the overflow tank probably ran dry after 10 years of no maintenance to it, and the radiator sucked in air, the air pocket will collect in the heater core and prevent hot air blowing when the heater is turned on. Other problem could be plugged heater core, which is easily fixed by pulling the two heater core hoses off the water pump and flushing garden hose water under pressure through the heater core only. bad thermostat can cause overheat, but so can air in the system and with no heat that points more towards air in the system rather than bad stat.
also check your overflow tank for cracks & leaks, pull the battery and the coolant recovery tank comes right out after a couple bolts, clean it out and make sure hose from it to radiator neck is good.

2000 TA ws6, pulled up to a stop light, all at once engine started cutting out, looked down and temp gauge was pegged. Pulled over and shut it of. I raised the hood, no boiling sound, no steam. Waited about 30 min., added 1/2 gal. of water (all it would hold). Started it up and drove 3 blks to the house. Heater would not blow warm on the way home even though the gauge read normal temp. Any ideas what going on?

Thanks

You added a hlaf gallon to the over flow tank....or the radiator? If you added a half gallon to the radiator, thats a ton a space to have in there.

Bunch of things could be wrong. Your radiator cap can be going bad and coolant is slowly leaking out now. You could have a bad temp sensor and everything else is perfectly fine. You could have a very slow leak at the water pump and its sucking in air each time the engine cools. If your t-stat was stuck "fully" closed you would peg the needle into the red quickly.

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