So I have no Coolant in my Rad.
 

Yep thats right no Coolant .. how did I discover thsi mishap you ask?

Simple all winter I had left the heater in the car set at hot. well yesterday I had the sun beating in through the windshield as I drove so I moved it to cold and up went the temperature. so long as I kept it on the hot side the temperature of the car stayed down. So I stopped let the car cool down for a few hours then I checked the rad. yep no coolant. I think I cracked it when I was in Bancroft last. but I don't see a break. so I'm going to go get more fluid and put it in and see if it leaks out.

I'll also check the hoses... is there anywhere else I should check when I go looking around for the cause of this issue?

Check your head gasket area and your exhaust for white smoke, look for any leaks from the head, or from the block itself. Pull a spark plug and see if it's white. If you've been running it dry for how long, who knows what might have happened... I'm surprised you hadn't seen any signs of it being empty (high temps)... Good luck

what do you mean by white smoke?? like the white smoke that comes outta your car during the winter time when its cold? or do you mean when its HOt out side and you see white smoke??

Yeah, white smoke that lingers rather than evaporates almost right away. You'd know it if you saw it, and it would smell of coolant (don't inhale too much of it though! :P).

gatherer, you can leak coolant from the waterpump (timing belt area), that pipe that runs alongside the back of the block under the intake mani, the heater core and heater hoses, or like you said the rad and upper/lower hoses.

good luck bro!

I just replaced my rad not long ago, got a nice cheap replacement from NAPA, it was like $60 cheaper than canadian tire.

rad is fine it's pretty new .. I just filled it seems liek the system is holding coolant but I'll have to keep an eye on it for now

If it's burning it slowly you might not notice any smoke, keep an eye on the level, don't forget to let the engine cool down first tho. LOL

hook up a pressure tester to the rad to see if that it, could be leaking from the waterpump, hoses, or ya it could be you headgasket, thats a clot of coolant to be burning and not notice tho

Check under the disrtibuter if its leaking from the hose right under it cause i just had that problem last week when i noticed my tranny looked wet. It had a small crack cause of the dizzy leaking tiny bit of oil cause of my DUMB EX-mechanic who only used 2 bolts instead of the 3 for the dizzy. Check in that area

Should be fairly easy to tell if it's leaking.. Drive a bit and look for drips. Considering you leaked it ALL out, you should have some wet spots around the engine bay or on the groun at your usual parking spot at home.

Just put a card board underneath the engine over night and look at it before you drive away. Thats what i did.