Coolant leaking at thermostat

[Turtle12400]

This is gonna sound really bad, I know...So over the past two weeks or so, I've had a burning rubber smell coming from the engine bay, with VERY occassional smoke coming out from under the hood. It smelled extremely strongly of burning rubber, and considering that I've been having belt trouble for a good period of time now, I pinned it on the belt occassionally slipping.

Well, tonight I was driving and it starts overheating. First time it's done this, and I noticed the instant it moved past normal operating temp. I was very close to my destination, so I limped it there. The temp guage was bumping around a lot, and only right at the end before parking it did it bump up to just below the red line on H.

I opened the hood right away, and smoke was coming out from under the throttle body area in the dip between the valve covers. Checked underneath and coolant had dripped onto the front crossmember pretty bad as well as onto the ground. Tracked the leak down to the t-stat. Lots of coolant sitting down in the recess in the block under the intake manifold and behind the t-stat, which is I believe exactly where the smoke was coming from (smoke was colorless and did not smell, btw). The t-stat was fairly wet (definitely bad) and wet in the gap between the gooseneck and the lower housing.

Did some forum searching and found that this was an issue others have had. Looks like I should replace my entire thermostat housing with an aluminum version (here) as the current one is bad and leaking, and seems like it's a pain in the ass to get it to stop.
Most helpful post - https://www.therangerstation.com/forums/index.php?threads/coolant-leak-at-thermostat.185902/
Also - https://www.therangerstation.com/forums/index.php?threads/coolant-leak-at-thermostat-housing.172418/
Also - https://www.therangerstation.com/forums/index.php?threads/thermostat-housing-keeps-leaking.183304/

So, my question now is was this sudden overheating issue a culmination of leakage from the t-stat housing?
- Was it that the coolant finally reached a level where it wasn't circulating properly, resulting in a buildup of heat and pressure, causing even more coolant to leak?
Should I replace my t-stat? I'm guessing a very strong yes here.
Should I be worried about any other issues?

Also:
I need to get my truck back to my house. It's not far, about 2.6 miles. Should I be able to fill the rad back up, get it back (carefully watching temps), without causing further damage?

Bottom line is I cannot leave the truck where it is now for more than tonight, but I'd rather just drive it back than tow it if it's gonna be safe to do so.

 

[Brain75]

I've moved a vehicle with a busted radiator (after front end collision) in a 'have to' scenerio... took all the gallon jugs/containers I could lay my hands on and filled em with water and limped it going a mile then stopping and refilling everything to max, then repeat one more mile... did it work yes, was it the right thing to do.... dunno, but I don't think I hurt the car any worse than it already was. Don't be afraid to stop too often and top it off more than you should... I drove with the radiator cap completely loose so that it didn't pressurize and I would of had to mess with letting it cool enough to not scald myself.. it piddled and dribbled the whole way.

I had to get it probably 6 or 7 miles all in town (Aurora, a suburb of Denver).
Just don't drive it so far that the gauge goes ice cold (no coolant left on the sender)...

If you have already cracked a head, you aren't gonna make that head any worse, but if you haven't then you should baby it extra careful all the way. Middle of summer and I was running the heat full tilt to help cooling and so I could hear if the heater core was starting to suck air (level too low).

As for your other questions, well once I got it home it would just drive me nuts not to know so I would do a compression and leakdown test, then drain the oil and look for coolant in there, all new fluids all around not so much to say I had new, but to check how they looked coming out (in the engine - no change to clutch/trans/etc).
I'd probably replace the T-stat, but that's cause they are fairly cheap... a broke guy could test it and if it passes re-use I suppose -depends on how hot it got. I did have a T-stat weld itself shut, different car...

 

[Brain75]

I re-read and I am gonna caveat what I said... If you have a water pump seized up (not turning) or an AC clutch seized and that is causing your belt to burn - then you have no cooling from a belt/pump not moving... do you due diligence and make sure things are working before you hop in and drive it - figure out why the smoking belt..