Ford Repair: 2001 ford taurus se overheating, coolant leaks, head gaskets

Question
hello my girlfriend has a 2001 taurus wagon. a few weeks ago it started raining coolant. we inspected it and the coolant reservoir was cracked so i replaced it. ran good for a couple weeks then started raining again. we took an hour long trip and upon arrival we popped the hood and the coolant was bubbling and had expanded the volume of the tank and was seeping out from the lid. the thermostat in the interior panel reads (i assume) correctly, it was reading normal and when we stopped it quickly shot up to the max in about 5-10 seconds. the coolant normally gets to bubbling within 10-15 minutes of driving and we have to add coolant roughly twice a week, we dont have a lot of money so we havent really been able to take it to a shop. any idea what could be causing this and how much it could cost from a typical shop? and and all help is greatly appreciated!

Answer
is your coolant dirty-if it is or if stop leak has been added radiator may be clogged-if radiator is clogged it may idle ok but overheat while driving-also look for coolant leaks around timing cover or head gaskets-
you may have blown headgaskets that are not causing exhaust to steam yet but only overheats while driving-that coolant is going somewhere and i understand you don't have a lot of money but you need to have this checked out maybe you could get enough for a checkout fee then repair it yourself-regardless of what problem is thermstat needs to be replaced when repair is made-as far as cost i can't tell you it's less here than in atlanta-and it depends on how deep diagnosis has to go we start at 1/2 hour labor which is 31.00 here and go from there depending on what we find or don't find. good luck