i was driving my 93 3.0 pick up to a friends house and it started ideling rough so i figured i will replace the plugs tomorrow. then on my way home it overheated all the way into the red and my heater didnt work. so now im thinking water pump. also i noticed after i got it home i started it and gave it gas and now i have white smoke coming out the tail pipe. does anybody have any clue what it might be. it has a rebuilt engine in it and im hoping it is not the head gasket as i cant afford to fix that right now. thanks for any help you can give

 

Sounds like a head gasket. It was idling rough, because of the water in the cylinder and lack of compression, the lack of heater and overheating is because the coolant is gone, and the smoke is from burning water in the combustion chamber.

 

sounds like hg to me as well. But you never know.

 

Overheated my 3.0 for a real simple problem - bad radiator cap. Blew HG 3 days later and white smoke started pouring out the exhaust.

See if you can catch a whiff of the exhaust - does it smell sweet? What temp is it outside when you see the smoke? If it's cold out - are you sure it wasn't like that before? Does it do it after the truck warms up for a long time?

Check under the radiator cap. Do you see pure green fluid or is it the color of a chocolate milkshake?

Are you losing any coolant in the reservoir?

 

well i checked the truck this morning. upper radiater hose cookin hot and lower hose cold as ice. great a water pump. i also checked the compression and it didnt seem that bad. cyl 1 had 130 and it went up each cylinder topping off at 160 in cyl 6. so maybe i will get away with just a water pump. what do you guys think

 

Did you lose any coolant?

 

its most likely a bad #3 cylinder and bad radiator and hoses

 

Well, a water pump is relatively easy and cheap. It also could be the thermostat. However, the white smoke is not a good sign. Are you losing coolant? Did you see any water on the plugs or in the cylinders? You can test for exaust leaks into the coolant with a kit, or a garage could do it for you.

Good luck with this one.