FML
 

the SDL just started drinking its coolant at an alarming rate. well i guess any rate is alarming but. it overheated for a very short period of time.


now what.

Time to check the coolant for oil, oil for coolant, and compression / leak-down.

Well, if it's burning coolant it'd be either a cracked head or a bad head gasket. Are you sure it's burning coolant, and not leaking it? Find out if there's oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil, like babymog said. So did it overheat after it started losing coolant, or start loosing coolant after it overheated?

Any white smoke out the exhaust?

Examine your cylinder head, near #2 #3 cylinders near the intake manifold, to see if you have the #14 head.
If its a #14, solving the overheating problem is very important.
Search #14 head if you're unaware of their history for intolerance to overheating.

to answer all your questions

well, it was fine one day. and then on the way to school the next day. i noticed the temp gauge a little above normal so i drove on keeping an eye on it. then in the space of about 5 seconds the needled jumped. so i immediately pulled over and shut it off. the coolant light was on before this happened but it had just come on so i didn't worry to much about it.


later that day i raced it home before it had a chance to over heat again. i succeeded.

after i let it cool again i opened the expansion tank and was able to pour over two liters of water in.

i took it for a drive with my dad and it didn't over heat for quite some time. but then the coolant light came on and the needle started to rise again.


so we got it home quickly, not letting it overheat again. donned some welding gloves and opened the expansion tank again. we were able to pour over 2 liters in again.and its not leaking out, because theres no puddle under the car right now which hasn't been moved since.


the exhaust doesn't look white, but it does smell sweet.

so ya. make what you can out of that, ill get more info soon.

Pouring cold coolant in a hot engine, very bad idea. If it wasn't cracked before, ...

Sounds very likely that you have either a cracked head, or a blown head gasket. I'll side with the former and suggest that there's enough evidence to pull the head if you wish to save the car.

You could run an oil analysis first if you really want to verify coolant in the oil, but it doesn't look good. The coolant light is not something you want to ignore.:(

You can also check for a cracked head by squeezing the upper radiator hose after it's sat overnight ... it should be easily squished. If it's hard, that's a cracked head symptom.

... and if it's soft, could still be a cracked head, with a leak in the cooling system. Start it and see if the hose pressurizes right away, ... before the engine gets warm.