99 Pontiac Grand Am Spitting coolant/losing heat idling

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Paroxuno

Short version:

When I drive for more than a short trip (10-15+ minutes), I find my car spitting coolant out if I stop and shut the car off immeadetly. If I put it in park, and idle for 30-45 seconds it doesn't spit any coolant out, mabye a drip or two.

Also, when I'm driving and stop moving for 4-5 minutes I lose heat in the car. For example last night I went to a drive thru, and there were a couple care in front of me. As I was waiting, the heat from my heater slowly cooled off and eventually there was no heat coming from the vents. As soon as I pulled away from the drive thru heat returned.

Any thoughts?


Long version:
I have a 1999 V6 Pontiac Grand AM, and a couple of days ago I got in my car and started it. The warning for Low Coolant came on, so I turned it off and checked. It was low, so I added some, and then thought nothing of it. This did seem odd, but I couldn't remember last time I checked it, and I do live in Arizona, so Summers are hard on cars.

When I talk about the car spitting out coolant below, it's coming out of a hose that comes off of the overflow tank. The hose is about 6 inches long and dumps water onto the frame which runs off below to the ground.

I drove to work (roughly 30-35 minutes, about 1/3 is freeway), I believe the next day, and I was a little late, so I specificly remember pulling into a parking spot and hopping out without pausing at all. I came out later and there was a large puddle of coolant under my car. I also turned the car on and got the Low Coolant light again. So I put water in it, and then drove it home. I got home, stopped the car (leaving the car on), popped the hood, and then turned the car off. The car did not spit any coolant out.

So today I experimented and drove to work again, this time when I got to work, I popped the hood, waited 20-30 seconds and then turn the car off. I did this again when I got home, neither time was it spitting water. But two other times when I pull to a stop and turn the car off without waiting or spending any time in park, the car spits coolant out.

Also, as I mentioned above in the short version, I lose heat (referring to the heater) when I sit at a low RPM for more than a couple of minutes. This happened at a drive thru, but as soon as I left the drive through heat returned.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
I'm beginning to wonder if this hose that's dumping coolant into the frame and onto the ground is actually supposed to be connected to something. I was reading about another car that had a hose become disconnected and it was sucking air into the cooling system causing it to overflow every time the car was turned off after driving hot.
 
3400 grand am engines are famous forhaving head gaskets and intake manifold gaskets go, which would both produce coolant leaks. check for that now, because it will cause you big problems later on if the coolant leaks into the crankcase or the engine overheats.
 
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