Hey guys, just got my learners on Monday :) and have been driving my escort all week, first time driving it and I love it and goes really well, but.. Today I was in peak hour and driving home, and at a set of lights there was heaps of smoke coming out of the bonnet, and then more and more, I looked at the temp gauge and it was on the highest it could go :( pulled over ASAP, turned it off and popped the bonnet and had a look, and it was pissing out coolant from the radiator cap and the overflow hose, relised my fan wasn't working, took a while to figure out that it was the temp switch thats connected to the relay and turns it on and off at certain temps, anyways I shorted it out so it was constantly on and had to put 2l of water into it to get it full. Got home alright, pretty pissed off, and then I was idling it home and relised a tick tick tick noise comming from the rocker cover, the rockers are noisy as is but this was different, could it be a bent pushrod? From the heat? And also I'm just gunna have the fan running off a switch in the dash, but when it's on constantly the temp gauge stays around the first/second line, is having it that low while driving around bad? Or?

Thanks,
Brandon.

If you let it cool down before adding the water you may be lucky enough that it hasn't done any damage. The ticking noise may be from the oil overheating, I wouldn't think a push rod would bend normally, change the oil again and see how it fairs. As for the temp, it's best to get the vehicle into it's normal operating temperature. Maybe going back to the original plastic fan on the engine would be best? I know I had all end of trouble with thermo fans and switches, so just reverted back to the plastic fan on the rallycar about 4 years ago and haven't had  a drama since.

I had an electric fan put on my Capri due to space reasions, but it is on all the time to avoid the trouble with switches

Yehh I let it cool down a little bit before putting water in. And the noise I think is from the rockers.