Can I beat my car to death?

Well Chad and I got my car put together and I drove it out to his house to see how it drive and it did fine until like the last 2 miles. My "stop your engine because it's too frecken hot!" light came on and I was able to make it to Chad's house. It seems like all the water was gone so before I left we added some water but it wasn't enough because it did the same thing. So when i got home I added another gallon of water and hopefully that will fix her. Gosh, I'm getting really annoyed with this cadi. Grrrr...