So I had an issue where my car would randomly over heat in traffic. Then today I got a call from the wife using the car that "smoke" was comming from under the hood, I told her to park the car and I would be right there.

I popped the hood and I could see water in various parts of the engine bay. I didnt change it and just had it towed home so I could go back to work.

I took the air cleaner assembly off and found a plastic bag some how wedged in between the ac condenser and radiator so I took that out. I then started the car and it got to the 220 mark where it usually sits, the fan kicked in, but I didnt notice any water spraying out anywhere. I had made sure to put water in the coolant tank (not radiator, not sure if that would matter at the moment) but the only thing I could see was what could have been steam comming from under the throttle body but back more towards the engine.

My wife said that when the smoke was comming out from under the hood no lights were on, on the dash and the gauge wasnt pegged.

Anyone have suggestions? Could his just be an intake gasket? or should i have put the coolant in directly into the radiator?

When I ran the car earlier after work it didnt over heat just the smoke or steam comming from under the TB.

This is on my 2000 Camaro | 3.8 v6 w/ about 105K on the odo.

 

You need to fill the radiator completely with coolant, making sure you get all the air out. When you fill the reservoir, nothing will enter the radiator - it's still empty, that's why you didn't see any coolant leaking out when you restarted it. Fill the radiator, let it get warm, then look for leaks.

The 3.8L V6 has a common problem with some fragile "elbows" that sit on or near the serpentine belt tensioner. I see these mentioned all the time on another site. Apparently there are some metal replacements available. Might want to check that area for the leak.

 

yeah appears to be a plastic elbow under the front of the intake plenum, thing is destroyed basically.