White phase 1, now with added truck turbo and massive head gasket failure

[Niall]

Had a bit of a think today about the circumstances in which the headgasket blew. i was in slow moving traffic, temp rising to the point the fans came on and thats when i lost heat from the blowers and the water temp shot up to 110. not really traditional headgasket failure circumstances really. got home today to check things out, the rad was completely empty which was worrying, got me thinking i possibly had a hydro-locked engine to deal with, but it started first time, no white smoke or anything. radiator doesnt smell of exhaust fumes and theres no oil or mayonnaise in the expansion tank, the water feels greasy but i dont think its oil,

anyway the point of all this being that im thinking its the radiator at fault, not the head. there's some pretty bad corrosion on the underside of the rad and a huge wet patch on one side, in traffic, engine gets hot water gets forced out of weak points in radiator, causes massive air lock, temp shoots up.

going to change the radiator this weekend and see if thats the case. be brilliant if it is, but could still have some head issues due to the massive temperatures it reached

My gti did exactly the same as that on the way to ace a few months back. the top of the expansion bottle was damaged not letting pressure out like it should. Got to a petrol station and put 4l of water in it and its been fine ever since! You could be lucky.