Engine overheating and smelling of maple syrup

[camkore]

Alright well on the way home from work.
Started to smell maple syrup about 10mins out from home.
Notice temperature gauge 2 mins from home is almost on high.
Get home an inspect engine bay.
Steam coming from a Crack/split in the hose just right of the clutch reservoir, right behind where the plenum (spelling?) is.
I didn't get a chance to take a pic and I haven't done anything since as I am in cairns on a holiday (good start I know)
Checked the brakes, oil and clutch levels later on that night when she cooled and they were all ok.
Could see a shiny liquid running from under car into drain as it was rainy at the time.
I searched the smell online and it was saying it could be fin a couple of places and has to do with the coolant?

Has this happened to you guys before? Or know of what I am talking about?
Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers Cameron

[Cerby86]

pretty sure that smell is burning coolant. Does the exhaust blow white smoke?
Could be a head gasket. Or more likely that hose is split and leaking coolant everywhere, hence high temps and smell. By shiny liquid do you mean liquid with an oil slick on it?

Also you mention the brake, clutch and oil levels but did you check the coolant level?

[Matt]

Toyota coolant is red so it adds up it is likely to be that, and more specifically a heater hose.

[camkore]

I didn't check the coolant level which could most likely show me what is up.
Car doesn't blow any white smoke which I suppose is a good thing.

I could see something ontop of the water like an oil.

[Rice86]

Most likely Hose needs replacement and the coolent is just picking up greasy oils when running off your engine block etc..

Check you engine oil, make sure it's still oil and not a mix of oil and coolent, you will know something is up if it doesn't look like oil

[maxhag]

just sounds like the smell is coolant.
Easy to test your senses dude, just chuck some coolant on something really hot and see if it's the same smell when it steams off..... Pretty simple/basic experiment