After all that god damned work I put into my car, it’s now destined to sit in the driveway for another several weeks while I take it all apart and put it back together. I found out why it was leaking coolant, why it wouldn’t start easily, why it idles really rough, and why it blows white smoke now–either a head gasket is blown, or one of the heads is cracked. It’s not surprising, with all the overheating problems I had this summer, but it sure picked a hell of a time to manifest itself.
Since head gaskets are relatively cheap, I’ll start by replacing those, and if I find that either of the heads are bad, I’ll probably replace them as well, but that’ll cost a shitload more. I’m hoping I won’t have to pull the engine to remove the heads, but I haven’t even thought about looking at my repair manual yet–I’m not too eager to get my hands dirty so soon after replacing the clutch.