car keeps over heating with steam smoke and leaking coolant.. Its stressing me out!!!

So i have a 01 LS and i love it so much. Ive only had it for 5months and since the 3rd month ive been having some overheating problems. Ive replaced the coolant reservoir it drove fine for about 3weeks then started to run hot again and leak coolant out the reservoir cap so i replaced that. Still ran hot.. so my brother got some air pockets out of the system but, it still ran hot. So i replaced the t-stat. After replacing that it did fine for a few days then started to run hot again. This time it seem to run hot one day and not the next until one day it ran hot constantly and steam would come from the reservoir and coolant would leak from under the car (behind front drivers side wheel.). So when it leak i would check the overflow tank sometimes it will be full and sometimes not. Wheb it wasnt full i would refill it until i ran ran out of antifreeze. Well i parked it after it leaked out the last of antifreeze that was in tank. So a few days later i got some antifreeze that was given to me by my brother which was red/orange all purpose antifreeze. I filled the tank up as it was dry and had leaked out all the green antifreeze. I started the car and let it run. It ran for about 20min without getting hot quickly like it usually do, air worked great but hea not so great.Then i started seeing steam come from reservoir tank which was full of red coolant then its started leaking GREEN coolant instead of the red i filled the tank up with. Also the temp gauge never went to H while it did all of this. And the antifreeze drip from like 4 or 5 different places behind my left front wheel. So im at a dead end and i dont know whata wrong with it. Im sad because i love it soo much always wanted one, finally got it, now this! Its a v8 3.9 engine. Do anybody know what my problem could be. I know one day i checked my coolant after it ran hot one day and it was low so i filled it up with water and forgot to put cap back on and i hopped on freeway. Soon as i got off it started smoking really bad i pull over and the coolant was boiling which i also forgot to mention. Thats another thing it has been doing. But the smoke came from the coolant boiling in tank and since i forgot to put cap on the smoke came out freely from tank. Could this have caused a problem. Although my car was running hot with coolant boiling in reservoir way before i did that and even after. Somebody please give me some advice :(

Wow... sounds like at least two problems. First there is a leak near the rear of the motor. A shop with a coolant pressure tester should be able to locate it without a problem. Second, the overheat, to me sounds like a headgasket problem. These are expensive to repair. If the overheat was bad enough you could be looking at a engine needing replaced. You need to have a competent shop do a diagnosis on this to find out what all the problems are. Will cost you probably 100.00, maybe less, for diagnosis.

Wow... sounds like at least two problems. First there is a leak near the rear of the motor. A shop with a coolant pressure tester should be able to locate it without a problem. Second, the overheat, to me sounds like a headgasket problem. These are expensive to repair. If the overheat was bad enough you could be looking at a engine needing replaced. You need to have a competent shop do a diagnosis on this to find out what all the problems are. Will cost you probably 100.00, maybe less, for diagnosis.

Thats what i hoped to NOT hear. But i figured it had something to do with my gasket. But my oil isnt chocolate milk looking and there isnt any smoke coming out my tailpipes. I owe $3000 on it. Guess i should trade it in before it worsen. :-(

Relax. Your headgaskets are fine.
The leak's not at the rear of the engine, it's at the front. (The coolant runs from the leaking thermostat housing to the back of the engine, going under the intake manifold.)

Make sure you use the OEM degas (reservoir) bottle and cap. The Doorman bottle is crap and will cause nothing but problems.

Also, check your hydraulic engine cooling fan. Turn the AC off and start the engine cold. Now turn the AC on. The fan should speed up quite a bit and you should notice it being louder and having more airflow. If it doesn't, you have a problem with the solenoid valve (actuator) that controls fan speed.

It's very, very, very important that when you replace cooling system parts and refill the system, you must correctly fill and bleed the cooling system to the letter of the official Ford procedure. Anything else, and you will keep having the randomish problems that you describe.

Flush all that coolant mixture you have out. Replace it with the extended life universal green coolant. Anything else may cause clogs and problems with the aluminum parts.

Relax. Your headgaskets are fine.
The leak's not at the rear of the engine, it's at the front. (The coolant runs from the leaking thermostat housing to the back of the engine, going under the intake manifold.)

Make sure you use the OEM degas (reservoir) bottle and cap. The Doorman bottle is crap and will cause nothing but problems.

Also, check your hydraulic engine cooling fan. Turn the AC off and start the engine cold. Now turn the AC on. The fan should speed up quite a bit and you should notice it being louder and having more airflow. If it doesn't, you have a problem with the solenoid valve (actuator) that controls fan speed.

It's very, very, very important that when you replace cooling system parts and refill the system, you must correctly fill and bleed the cooling system to the letter of the official Ford procedure. Anything else, and you will keep having the randomish problems that you describe.

Flush all that coolant mixture you have out. Replace it with the extended life universal green coolant. Anything else may cause clogs and problems with the aluminum parts.Well thats pretty relieving news. But the reason i think of gasket problems is because of the leak, and the overheating. I also wonder if its my waterpump. Of it was just the system needing to be flushed wouldnt it just overheat without the leak? Maybe youre right though so im going to try that flush. Thanks for you guys responses. I really appreciate them.

Relax. Your headgaskets are fine.
The leak's not at the rear of the engine, it's at the front. (The coolant runs from the leaking thermostat housing to the back of the engine, going under the intake manifold.)

Make sure you use the OEM degas (reservoir) bottle and cap. The Doorman bottle is crap and will cause nothing but problems.

Also, check your hydraulic engine cooling fan. Turn the AC off and start the engine cold. Now turn the AC on. The fan should speed up quite a bit and you should notice it being louder and having more airflow. If it doesn't, you have a problem with the solenoid valve (actuator) that controls fan speed.

It's very, very, very important that when you replace cooling system parts and refill the system, you must correctly fill and bleed the cooling system to the letter of the official Ford procedure. Anything else, and you will keep having the randomish problems that you describe.

Flush all that coolant mixture you have out. Replace it with the extended life universal green coolant. Anything else may cause clogs and problems with the aluminum parts.also, what is the OEM degas bottle. I got mine brand new from autozone but im not sure if its a OEM one. I just know i bought it in april..

also, what is the OEM degas bottle. I got mine brand new from autozone but im not sure if its a OEM one. I just know i bought it in april..

OEM is Motorcraft (available from Jaguar too, but it's the same part.)

If you didn't replace all the plastic parts up front, you still have a leak. The overheating you describe is very common on this car. If the cooling system is perfect and correctly bleed, it is a very solid trouble free cooling system, but if there are any tiny leaks or it is not bled correctly, you'll have nothing but trouble. Blown head gaskets are very rare on the 3.9. You can get the overheating you describe even with no faults just by not exactly following the factory fill and bleed procedure.