I know there are already some threads on this but it seems like their problems are a little different from mine or their solutions do not work for mine. I have an 89 truck with the v6 3.0 motor. I traded a car for this truck and they drove the truck to my house and took the car ( my wife was home I was at work.) Anyways the truck will not start now. I have spark and I have fuel getting to the fuel rail. The truck blows quite a bit of white smoke when I went and checked it out and decided to trade my car for it. I know these motors aren't the best anyways but he supposedly rebuilt the motor but did not get the cylinder walls cleaned up and one of them was a little banged up and he thinks that's why it blows white smoke. But anyways I cannot figure out why it won't start. It was a little warmer when I test drove it and has been in the single digits the past few days. Not sure if the cold is affecting it or what but any help would be much appreciated. It cranks over and seems like it wants to fire but just won't. ( also tried starting fluid)

 

The cold could be a large factor in it not starting. Mine acts the same way when it gets below freezing. Cranks and cranks(slowly). Have you tried charging the battery? I don't daily drive mine and this time of year I'll bring the battery inside the garage and let it charge until I know I'm going to use the truck. That may not be an option for you, but you might want to look into the condition of the battery before moving on to anything else.

 

It is a new battery but I tried starting it for a bit and the battery died. So now I've I'm jumping it from my truck trying to get it started. I read somewhere about a cold start injector not working right but haven't looked much into it. Thanks for the reply!

 

White smoke is usually steam (you can put your hand in the exhaust stream and it will get wet; easy to distinguish from oil). All cold engines put out a little white smoke (water is a combustion product, but once the exhaust is warm the water stays as a vapor and you can't see it). But if yours has white smoke even after 2 minutes, it is likely you have a coolant-to-exhaust leak, and the head gasket is where that is most likely to happen. I really doubt an uncleaned cylinder wall would lead to white smoke. If anything, it could cause blow-by and perhaps bluish (oil) exhaust.

If you have a head gasket issue, you may have weak compression in one or more cylinders, which will make it hard to start (and soon enough, keep running). A good reason to quickly trade it for a car, any car, particularly if the car owner isn't around when you drop off the truck.