After some hours with the Haynes Repair Manual and on the Brickboard, I decided I'd throw out a post of my own on this issue...

Yesterday I drove my '86 240 wagon about 15 miles, everything sounded and was running fine. I stopped home for an hour, and pulling out on my way to work I noticed a fresh puddle (a couple oz.) of what looked to be antifreeze. A couple miles later at work I pop the hood and there's a rusty antifreeze splat on the interior of the hood and the engine, which looks like it eminated from the radiator end of the hose that connects the radiator to the engine (called the upper radiator hose?) a little bit of smoke/steam, and a yucky smell. Heat gauge never went above 1/2. There was nothing in the overflow container but bright orangish yellow sediment.

On the advice of a questionably qualified co-worker, I filled the system up with water and got her the 6 miles home without further problems. It rained last night, so theres no telling now if anything additional was leaking beyond the 1 or 2 tablespoons that came out after i got to work.

I'm going to try my hand at draining/flushing the thing this morning (I can't very well drive around with just water in there)

My main question is: what do you all think went wrong?

From reading some cooling system procedures from Fitz, BC, et al. it seems it may do me well to update the thermostat, and I have no idea the last time any work was done on it. She's been in my possession 2 1/2 weeks. I'm a college student with no working knowledge of cars (this is my first) so plain language/shape descriptions are helpful.

Thanks in advance for any input you all might have on this situation

Natalie
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1986 240 wagon, approx 140k