overheating

Hi, everyone! My fiance has been working on my 1994 Metro for about 6 months and he can't figure out what is wrong with my little butt-dragger (as he calls it). I love my little car but it is causing me nothing but trouble, not to mention the strain it is putting on our relationship! Any help you guys can give me would be appreciated. The car sat in my garage for about 3 years before he started working on it because it just quit running and then I got another car. My boyfriend has done the following work on it:
new spark plugs, new spark plug wires, new distributor cap and rotor, new timing belt, new water pump, new oil filter and oil, new air cleaner filter, cleaned the fuel injectors, adjusted the timing and some other things that aren't really clear even though he tried to explain what he was doing. I know all these names because I have all the receipts from the store. The car runs okay but the temperature gauge goes up to the red mark after driving it only a few blocks from home. Oh, and he replaced the thermostat and the two radiator hoses too. Does anybody know what else he can check? He says he has done everything he can think of, and I don't have the money to take it to a shop. Please help!

well first burp the air from the cooling system

run the engine with the cap off

there could be air from changing the hoses

thermostat could be stuck closed.

halfway possible to put it in backwards....

you could just take it out.

what is the exhaust like coming from the car? what does the oil look like? any white or tan in it?

Thank you for answering so quickly. I am at work and don't have a computer at home and hoped to tell him something to check tomorrow. There was some smoke when he revved up the engine at first but it seemed to go away after the engine was running at normal speed. It looked kind of gray to me but he said that was from the car sitting so long. I will be back tomorrow night to check in again. Thank you, from Gloria the Metro Girl.

also possible the radiator fan is not coming on, it should come on just before the temp hits 3/4 gauge on the dash. if it doesn't you probably have a bad fan switch. its the 2 wire sensor in the thermostat housing. if he replaced the hoses it probably has a air bubble in the engine, you have to run it with the cap off in driveway and keep adding coolant. put a catch pan under the car beacuse it will tend to push water out until the air bubble is gone, just be patient and add it slowly till it stops coming out the top. another possibility is bad head gasket, it could be why car stopped running. if you have antifreeze in the car and exhaust smoke has a sweet smell to it thats probably your problem, hope not

Thank you again. I'll call him and tell him to check what you said. I'll be back to let you know what happened. Gloria

If the temp gauge goes up that fast, you definately have air in the system, or a completely plugged radiator. It takes a metro a good 2-3 miles to get to operating temp on average. If it's getting that hot, that fast, I would honestly suspect a blown headgasket. Take the rad cap off, and Let the car idle till the temp gauge gets up to halfway. Then, rev it up. Make sure nobody is standing anywhere near the hood! If the water level rises a bit, and some spills over the top of the radiator, that's normal. Now, if it shoots out of the top of the radiator like a fountain, you've got a blown headgasket. Also, while the car is idling, look at the coolant to see if any bubbles are coming out of it. One other thing to check is your oil. Pull the oil cap off, and see if there's any milky stuff on it. That's another sign of a blown headgasket.