Coolant relief valve?

[93Cobra]

Allright..... bear with me....I am a mustang guy. My wife has a 95 EB Explorer. I am going to go pick up a Chiltons manual today... but thought maybe you could help. We bought the car last year and it had 88K when we bought it. It now has around 102K. Have had no problems with it, has been a good vehicle. Now there is a vavle that keeps dripping coolant (I guess it is the coolant relief valve?). It is located to the left of the engine (passenger side) and sits up pretty high. When the car is shut off.... drip, drip, drip, drip, drip,drip. It keeps dripping for quite some time. Well eventually the resovoir was empty, so I refilled it back to the cold fill line. My wife yesterday said the car was smoking when she got home from work. I went out and popped the hood, and the relief valve was dripping. I think the smoke was just coming from the coolant dripping on to the headers or engine block. However, the resovoir was just about empty again. I let the car cool down a few hours, and then checked the radiator level. It was topped off and a nice green color. I am going to flush the cooling system. Does it sound like the coolant relief valve needs to be replaced? It's not supposed to drip like that is it? The car is not running hot...(at least not according to the dash temp guage) Are these guages reliable? I know the stock guages in my 88GT are somewhat less than reliable. What is needed and required to change this relief valve? Thanks for any advice or help you can give me.

Scott

 

[Iggy flywheel]

radiator cap

I not real clear on where it is leaking from is it from the radiator cap? When the engine is hot the coolant expands and goes into the reservior through the tube that runs from the cap to the reservior. when it cools it sucks it back to the radiator. If it is dripping from the cap itself not through the tube then the cap is not functioning right. Inspect the radiator sides if they plastic they leak often mine did replaced the radiator with an all metal rad.......