So I was on my way home after a weekend away.. about 300kms into the journey, when the engine suddenly overheated.
I pulled over and popped the bonnet to find the radiator overflow FULL of intensely boiling water. I left it to cool for some 20 minutes, and while I was waiting, found the vacuum hose on the top of the throttle body had popped off. There was also some steam coming up from around the water pump and an clearly audible boiling noise coming from the block.
After leaving it to cool for a further 30 minutes or so, I limped to the next town (about 2 or 3 minutes drive) and topped up the water. After a few more minutes letting it cool down again, I drove off and got about 300 meters down the road before it was overheated again.
By now I'm spitting tacks. It's a good hours drive home yet, and the car seems in no state to drive, so I call road side rescue and arrange a tow truck. They'll only take me as far as the next nearest town with a garage (which isn't super helpful seeing as I need to get home, but that's another rant).
Once there, I check the oil level (as I'd done a complete change with amsoil just a month and a half earlier, I didn't think that that could be an issue), only to find it was a good 5mm below the bottom notch. So I topped up with oil, and seeing as the engine was now well cold (after the tow), I waved good bye to the towy and set off once again...
... only to get 10kms further.
This time I'm seeing something is seriously wrong, so I arranged for another two at my expense for the rest of the journey. We had to wait a good 3 hours for this one to arrive, so by the time we got home it was 11pm or so, and I went straight to bed without even looking at the car.
What the hell could be wrong with it? Why was the oil so low, when there is no sign of any leaking, and no sign of it burning oil either (no smoke etc).