was on my way to a fellow members house to pick up a part, but on the way there was a bad wreck on the road and traffic was down to 8mph for 3 mi. I was fine until i smelt anti-freeze then smoke started coming up from the headlight doors!!! I felt bad for the car because i didn't have any extra coolant with me. Got to a gas station and popped both the hood and decklid, smoke was coming from either the exhaust manifold for under the valve covers up front the radiator fan wasn't going at all..

with the smoke coming from the motor do you think i caused any serious damage?
how can i test to see if the fan motor is bad vs. the relay?

i bought this car for a project, but i hope the motor is okay. no $$ for swap

(if any pics are needed for visual assistance, i can get some up tomorrow)

bump..i hope i didn't blow a head gasket, smoke seemed to be coming from under the valve cover *gulp*

im going to try t burp the coolant system tomorrow, havent done it in a while..i think i lifted the rear of the car, took out the thermostat, filled the neck with coolant, turned on the car and waited for the coolant to settle before puting the thermostat back in..is that right?

On my 86 GT, yours may be similar.

Turn your AC on MAX, key on-engine off, and the fan should run. The trunk-mounted fan runs on mine, also.

Haynes manual schematic is somewhat helpful here, but isn't real good with locations. The fan relay is in front of the left headlight. Four wires, black/red (power out to the fan), Red (power in from the fusible link), green and brown wires to switch the relay on, (one controlled by the engine temp sensor/switch, and one from the AC controls). The ground connection for the motor is just to the left of the headlight, and that's where my recent problem was (two black wires with ring connectors). Bad ground connection, screw was loose and wouldn't tighten down again. I had 12 volts at the motor, but it still wouldn't run. Current still needs a comlete path, and this isn't the first time I had a ground problem. I drilled a new hole next to the old one, got a new stainless attaching screw and some star washers, and put the two ground wires back down again. Problem solved. I think the smaller ground wire that connects with the same screw is for the headlight, but I'm not sure.

The connector plug for the fan itself is on the underside of the motor. PITA to get to unles you either remove the fan (4 bolts), or get under the car. Pop the headlight out as well. All you'll need is a 10 mm deep socket and a 1/4" ratchet to remove the fan and the headlight. Actually one of the easiest repairs I done. It looks like it could be rotated, but make sure the motor goes back in connector plug down, though, because that's how water drains out of the motor.

If you do have a bad fan motor, the motor is around $30 at Autozone, and they had one in stock here. The relay is another story, 2 days to get it, even though the online website said it was in stock. O'Reilly's could get me one overnight.

if its anything like what my GT was you can drive it with the AC on as long as the AC is running the fan. also your fan switch might be bad simple fix

Sounds like you fried a head gasket

i have no A/C in this car. just tried to burp it and all that was acomplished was spewing coolant everywhere :frown:

if Calico is right (i hope he's not lol) then what are some other symptoms i can look for to determine if it was a headgasket failed?

i'll try to tackle the radiator fan tomorrow. btw, thanks 2birds for the writeup!