Overheating Issues?
 

Two days ago when I was driving home from work, my radiator exploded. I pulled it into my garage to inspect it, and the rad cap had popped up a bit spilling coolant everywhere. I inspected all lines going to and from the radiator, and none seemed to look like they had any problems. I filled the radiator back up with 50/50 and left the cap off to burp it. The rad seemed to take a pretty good amount of fluid. I also threw in some radiator stop leak just in case. I allowed it to idle , and it seemed fine. Once I put a load on the engine (uphill from my house. Not on the gas really hard.) I noticed it start to smoke again. I again took the cap off and allowed it to idle. This time I noticed the antifreeze start to boil..

Does anyone have any useful insight on what this could be? I was thinking it could be simply a thermostat going bad, but before I replace that, I would like to hear from more experienced people.

Smoking??? As in water vapor in the exhaust? = Head gasket.

Any oil film in the coolant or foam in the oil? = head gasket.

Fans working?

It should overheat idling if it is the thermostat

Did you change your tune somehow?

What Dean said - "smoke" from where?

Temp Gauge readings while all of this happens?

Coolant level increase when cap is off and engine warms up = normal.

I didnt change my tune. It was essentially steaming from the engine bay. To be more exact the close vicinity to the radiator. No oil film in coolant. Not smoking from exhaust. I replaced the thermostat today just because its fairly simple and cheap. It seems to have fixed the majority of the problem, but I believe it still exists. However, the steam after the job could have been just left over spilt coolant.

Likely. Keep an eye on the temp gauge. Mine always rises to one spot and never goes above unless I'm climbing Spooner at 70 in August with a load and the AC on.

This is nothing to worry about. The cap allows the system to pressurize, thus raising the boiling point.

I would test the cap or just replace it if it is not holding pressure.