Ok, so now I'm going to have to go back and find the part where your color is discussed. It's stunning!
Maybe I've already seen it a number of times, but forgot in all the excitement otherwise.
But now for the real meat of the conversation...
Drove down the interstate today for the first time; just 6 miles... hit 75mph, but felt much more comfortable at 60!
What air pressures in the tires? What steering mods?
Probably all here, I just have to go re-read it to find out.
Im hoping I had just overfilled my coolant - because as soon as I got to the light at the end of the exit ramp, the steam started bellowing out from under the hood.
Sorry, not likely...
At least not from over-filling. What you usually get in that case is a practically invisible stream squirting out of the overflow tube and on to the ground. Not steam billowing out from under the hood.
If you have an overflow reservoir, same thing but less.
Could be a defective cap of course, coupled with air in the system. That would spew junk out over the engine and exhaust and give you some of what you found.
So let's hope for that...
I pulled to the side, popped the hood and noticed a foamy white-brownish substance bubbling from the reservoir cap, dripping on the headers and steaming like a power plant.
Sorry, not sounding good at all. Classic case of a blown head gasket or cracks in the system letting oil and/or pressure into the cooling system.
Not normal at all, even for a brand new engine unless a lot of air was caught in the system.
And even then, it's not usually brown or foamy.
Any cause for concern? My temp never exceeded 195*
Yes.
The temperature not being high makes it even more likely to be a head gasket forcing pressure, and possibly oil, into your coolant.
Time to remove the cap and inspect the condition of the coolant as it sits. Then start the engine and let it idle while you watch for buildups of any type, or just strangeness in general.
There are professional tests of course, where you look for combustion gasses in the mix, but you can do initial testing visually.
Several members have been through this recently it seems.
Paul