92 Cougar Radiator Leaking

Hi,

This is a female who knows very little about cars, but any advice on the following will be greatly appreciated!

For 6 months or so, the thermostat occasionally would heat up, but it would never go into the red hot area on the thermostat. When it did go higher though, the heat or A/C would not work. This would usually stop after a few minutes. After awhile, though, it went higher all the time and the heat & A/C would never work. I got a radiator flush and the heat & A/C worked great for a few days. Then it started losing fluid again. I tried Bar's Leak radiator repair and this helps for a minute, but then the problem returns. I was told by a mechanic who I do not trust that I needed a new head gasket.

I find the head gasket thing hard to believe considering that the car runs great except for this problem. Is it possible that I just need a new radiator or is the head gasket usually the culprit?

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated because I do not have the money to buy another vehicle right now!

Thanks!

does the car throw smoke thru the exhaust or the engine compartment this in one way to know if you need to replace the head gasket

Does the radiator seem to be bulging out? If it is the head gasket could have a small hole but with what your saying you could have a sticking thermostat with it heating up and not having heat then cooling and having heat. Did the mechanic do a pressure check on your radiator? Another way to check if you have a blown headgasket is to look at your oil and if it looks like chocolate milk then you may have coolent leaking into the oil system from a leaky head gasket. And to the extreme although I'm sure this isnt your problem but your water pump may be failing, to check this just pull your radiator cap off when the engine is cool, start the engine and look in the radiator to see if the coolent is flowing.