96 Ford Thunderbird Radiator problems

Okay, I have a '96 Ford Thunderbird (V6), and last night the heater went out and my temp went up so i went under my hood and my radiator hose was disconnected, so i reconnected it, filled my radiator and started my car and my oil pressure gauge was going up and down rapidly and my temperature still began to rise, and my car was rattling, and the check gauges light came on, and my car began to stall out. My guess is there is a problem with the radiator, because of the temperature rising. But why did my hose disconnect, and if my radiator is the problem, what exactly happened? Sorry about all the questions im just desperate. Thank you so much.

If you run it with the valves rattling until it stalled out you probably caused more internal damage. If a car overheats, shut it down immediately.

I guess you have the 3.8L motor. They require special bleeding on the cooling system to get the trapped air out. I'll tell you how on the bottom of this post.

First, the hose come off because either it wasn't installed properly or the car overheated because of a stuck closed thermostat or the water pump failed. If the hose has one of them factory spring clamps on it, replace it with a screw clamp.

You can either take a chance spending money on coolant to fill it back up or just use water until you know you don't have other problems. Normally you want the system 50/50 coolant and water. If you use water, and everything checks out okay, you'll have to drain the radiator and fill it back up with coolant and bleed the system a second time.

Okay, that all said

fill the radiator up to the top. On the engine in front of the intake manifold is a 2" bleeder cap (at arrow in picture below). Loosen the cap and the air will come out it followed by coolant. You might have to fill the radiator back up at the same time.

When you are sure the air is out, close the cap back up and top the radiator off.

Check the oil dipstick, make sure it is full. Also make sure it is not a milky color. This is a sign of a busted head gasket. Don't start the motor if so. If it looks normal, okay, start the engine.

Immediately look for leaks, see if it is dripping under the car. See if it is leaking at the water pump and around hoses.

Feel the top radiator hose when the engine warms up (5-10 minutes). It should go from cold to hot if the thermostat opens. You can squeeze the hose and feel the water gush too.

If the engine sounds rough or you find a leak, shut her down immediately and tell us whats going on.

Coolant Bleeder Valve

Also if the radiator cap is faulty and doesn't relieve excess pressure, it could blow a loose hose off. 3.8L is one engine that you don't want to over heat. They had problems with the head gaskets on those engines. If you get it running again and it doesn't have coolant in the oil, as Grease stated, or white smoke pouring out the exhaust, feel yourself lucky.