99 ford taurus engine issue, disappearing coolant, please help!

[moparguy01]

ok, the car is a 99 ford taurus with the 3.0 v6 engine. The previous owner overheated it bad and a mechanic they took it to said its a head gasket. the car has 46000 miles on it original. the car does lose coolant slightly.

heres what i have done found so far
-the coolant was a nasty rusty orange color
-there was obvious coolant spray over the engine as its covered with said nasty rusty orange color which has now been baked on.
-the spark plugs have all been pulled and look perfect, light tan in color, no signs of coolant there
-no sweet smell from the exhaust
- when hooking up a pressure guage to the system, it will hold the full psi for about 5-10 minutes, then lose pressure at the rate of roughly 1psi every 5 minutes

does anybody have any idea what could cause this? due to the coloring of the dried spray on the engine I would venture to guess radiator, but i found no visible leaks when the system was pressurized.

Please help!

Thanks in advanced fellas
Russ

[Ghoste]

I don't know that it is your problem but there was an issue with head gaskets on those things back around that time.

[mopar_nut_440_6]

If you run teh car with the rad cap off do you see any bubbles in the coolant. This is a sign of a head gasket problem.

[b5blue]

Might sound over simplified...radiator cap...had a ford that drove me nuts for the same reason...put in some bars leak too.What's the oil look like? 

[moparguy01]

oil looks fine, no coolant in there.i might just try a new radiator cap

ill check for bubbles in the coolant too. thanks for the advice guys!

[moparstuart]

check your overflow bottle they are pressurized on those and they are junk also . I sell them as fast as they come in .
they leak badly .  You can get new aftermarket ones at most parts stores for like  50-65 bucks 

[kab69440]

My guess is a bad radiator. Since the coolant was so full of scale as to be orange, most likely it the rad full of loose crap. It probably only leaks when the car is up to temperature and under a lot of pressure, so you don't see it drip when parked. The scale and crap in the rad is what plugs off the pinhole(s?) when not pressurized. I've had this same scenario happen a couple of times.

[Tilar]

check your overflow bottle they are pressurized on those and they are junk also .

  You can also check the overflow bottle for air bubbles.

[Neal_J]

Those are notorious for head gasket failures.  Ask me how I know...

[TheGhost]

I think I found your problem.  It's even circled!