my engine overheated today. shock of my life! looked under the bonnet and there was a leak at top of rad and loads of hissing and the hot air coming into the car from the matrix was stone cold! assumed/hoped it was a block so i have now flushed the radiator and filled her up again...she seems ok now just hopes she stays that way. anything else i can check??

also it was juddery as hell this morning. it was missing a week back - only on a cold start then got better when warm, but today it was juddery and missing slightly even when warmed up-right until it overheated.

are the two faults connected? do i need to get new coil packs or there something i could look into that cheaper first?



any help would be very

 

You can get any reptutable garage to use a dye to test your water system for the presence of combustion gases, indicating head gasket issues

Re the missfire, have you checked spark plug condition and gaps, and, if it's an early car, looked at the coilpacks for hairline cracks, which can cause the spark to arc out.