Have you tried getting a new reservoir cap and replacing it? I find it strange that your coolant spewed out from around the cap unless you didn't have it tight. Perhaps the seal on it is shot and not holding pressure?

 

Rube -- it is indeed a possibility -- I've had mine spew coolant in the same manner even when the leak was not from there.

My concern is the upper rad hose not getting warm -- which says circulation issues to me.

Is it the orig radiator? I believe they circulate in the bottom and out the top (someone please correct this if I'm wrong)

So a cold upper rad hose would maybe imply a plugged radiator?

(??)

 

Well Derf, you and I have already suggested a blockage, so I don't know what else to suggest. Maybe someone will come up with something else.

Heart breaker, heart breaker. You know what I'm referring to! LOL

 

Over the years I have owned and maintained an eclectic array of automobiles some of which actually ran well others? Had trouble getting out of the driveway and a few had cooling problems.
I've never owned one that would boil water and have the upper radiator hose stay cool.
So something is drastically wrong with the information being received.
Also when my 94 SC2 had the partially plugged catalytic converter it got hot enough to scare me on occasion over the period of time it took to figure it out and fortunately not hot enough to damage the car.
Every thing that has been said indicates the engine gets hot enough to loose water through the pressurized tank from boiling.
Gauge reads hot, heater blows hot air and water spurts out.
Unless there is something wrong with the tank and it is indeed no longer pressurized but allowing water to escape before it boils, but normal expansion of hot water thus confusing an issue. My car wore a hole in that tank from a screw head that was touching it and water could get out of that hole, the placement was just low enough so water level in the tank would not get low enough to trigger the sensor that detects low water unless I turned a corner hard or jackrabbit started.
Visually by the time it got that low I would see a drop or two and related that what was seen to the beginning of a crack in the plastic end caps of the radiator. Thus was fooled by the symptom. And the car ran pretty much fine with the pressure gone from the system in the mean time.
If this car was mine and I was as confused as I am I would pull the thermostat and repeat the tests run with the cap off of the tank and see if the following would happen
1. It repeats the getting hot mode by all previously mentioned symptoms.
2. The top hose does not get hot.
AND
3. Stick my finger in the water in the tank and feel what the temperature is or somehow measure it so I would know what ever is going on with the water in the engine is also showing up in the tank.
4. Thus letting me know what is happening so I can relate cold hose to tank happenings.

I am having trouble with the word blockage.
I have yet to see a blockage that keeps water from circulating unless the thermostat is closed.
Yes it opened in a pot of hot water, not it has not been determined it is backwards.
If it is in my pocket, it is not part of the problem any longer.
yes I have seen collapsed hoses, generally because the spring inside them is rusted away and the rubber is rotten. But when looking at them with a hot engine over heating they actually look collapsed.
What I need to do is go out and look at my car to figure out what the the top hose does. Or if for some reason there is more than one hose at the top and there is a bit of a confusion going on as to what a top hose is.
I under stand the reason for a remote tank. Clearance issues with the hood.
Early 60's T-birds were that way. Pontiac Fiero's were too for different reasons, one of which was directly related to causing overheating problems with the car. The filler cap was in the trunk in back with the engine. The over flow tank was in the front next to the radiator and about 8 inches lower than the top of the engine. There was a car that if the lines were not burped correctly the top of the engine never got water, which would have been solved with a system similar to what the Saturn uses.

And when I replaced my tank on my Saturn and what I would call the over flow line, the one that directs water from the tank to the ground in every other thing I own, went instead to some place on the intake manifold and I never found out why or what the reason was, I realized there was something about the Saturn Cooling System that I was and still am, clueless about.

While I can not justify a logical reason to pull the thermostat and see what is taking place, if it is not there and everything works o.k. except it takes a long time to get warm, it then can be assumed it has been installed backwards some where in the process of trying to figure out what is wrong.
To be honest, I don't even know if it can be installed backwards or where to look for it. East West engine configurations have some strange non-standard ways of doing things. And Saturn if I remember correctly was West East with the engine on the passenger side rather than the drivers side as many popular front wheel drive cars were when the came out. I'm not sure that is true now, but I sort of remember it being a questionable thing when these were new.
What ever the reason is I am still old school, you drive the rear wheels not the front.What a silly way to design a car. Only the Cristy a car made famous by Barny Oldfield and a bear to handle and the Citroen made by the French whose infamy has nothing to to do with success, build front wheel drive cars.
yuh, I know, others do now too. It just frosts me to see the French right in something.

 

try making sure the rad is sitting higher than the block when you refill -- and loosen the top rad hose to let the air out while filling

 

I've been away for a few days but I'm back and working on this same problem again.
I think I've confirmed that there is no blockage. I raised the front of the car on ramps as derf suggested. I drained the system again via the lower radiator drain valve and I removed the lower radiator hose and the top hose. I then replaced the two hoses...but on the top hose I left the clamps off so that I can see if coolant leeks (as an indication that coolant is flowing). I put the clamps back on the lower hose and made sure it's tight and not leaking. I then filled the reservoir until coolant was draining from the radiator valve. I then closed the valve and started the car and turned on the heat to full and the fan started up. The coolant level in the reservoir started going down and I began topping it off slowly until It would not take any more. I noticed coolant leaking from the top radiator hose where it connects to the engine so I put the clamp back in place and the leaking stopped. Then I saw coolant leaking from the other end of the top hose...where it connects to the radiator...so I put that clamp back in place as well. Now there aren't any leaks and coolant seems to be flowing normally because the top hose is getting nice and hot as it should. The air in the car is coming out nice and hot as well. By this time to temp gauge was at the half way point (straight up) so I turned off the heater...but the fan kept running and never turned off. I let the car run for a bit and kept an eye on the temp gauge. It kept rising right into the red and never cooled down. When it reached the red I turned the car off (and let out a few choice words). But the fan kept running with the car off. I turned the key back to ACC then off and pulled it out and the fan stopped running. This time the coolant did NOT begin spewing out from around the reservoir cap as it did each time before.
The car clearly overheated because it went into the red so I'm no closer to solving this problem than I was two weeks ago. I've checked for anything blocking the front of the radiator and all is good.

I would really appreciate any other ideas.

 

I'm going to ask a different question here, because I've looked back over the thread, and cannot find the answer --> Does the car overheat just in "around town" driving, or does it overheat at freeway speeds as well?

 

Man, I am frikkin' stumped here...if there is AIR-FLOW through the radiator and there is COOLANT CIRCULATION there shoud be NO reason for an overheating situation like cadman is describing...
It sounds like you have the coolant circulation happening, I guess...and I think you said earlier that you had the water pump replaced? The fact that you have heat coming from the heater through the dash would seem to indicate that the circulation is good.
So...let's try to figure out why the exessive heat isn't being drawn out by the fan...
You said in your last post that the fan started as soon as you started the car...as far as I know that shouldn't happen unless you have the a/c on on startup...one of the smarter, more knowledgeable guys here will have to address that one...
I think you need to see what's up with the fan, make sure that the blades are turning when the fan motor is on, and that the fan, if working correctly, is pulling large quantities of fresh air through the radiator...if necessary, get a high pressure garden hose and squirt it through the radiator from the front, see if the water makes it through into the engine compartment...that's what I would do, and if it's wrong to try it I'm sure one of the better mechs we have here will call me an idiot...
If those two things are happening smoothly, air flow through the radiator and good coolant circulation, your Saturn should be able to sit in one place and not cook, it was engineered to stay intact.

 

Bad head gasket, bad head ......... ?

 

might want to get the system pressure tested at this point --- if the system does not pass the pressure test you may be dealing with what RJ suggested.

Does your oil look normal or is it like a milkshake?