To make a very long story not so long, my car has been down for about a month and a half now. It was running fine, then it snowed, so I let the car sit for a couple of days, still starting it and letting it run. And one day I went to put it in storage and it died in my driveway and wouldn't restart. We had it towed to the shop and I replaced the starter which was cracked, and the car started up, burned the gas build-up, and ran fine for about a minute. Then it lost all power, stuttered, died, popped, rattled, just about everything you can imagine. Had it towed to the local GM Dealership. They scanned it, no codes, replaced the plugs , ran some fuel injector cleaner, and it ran like a dream. For about two days, then it started puffing white smoke, crazy crazy white smoke, like it blew a gasket or something. I've checked the fuel pressure which was fine, changed the fuel filter, pretty sure 02's are still fine as well.

At first it would start and run fine until it warmed up, then it would start right up still and run horribly all the time. And today it won't start at all, it sounds like it's turning over just fine, but just puffs, and puffs, kinda acting like the battery is dead, but the battery is fine. I'm thinking blown head gasket, but the car has never over-heated or anything. It always runs very cool, and it only has 92k miles on it, been ran with Royal Purple since I've had it, fluids changed regularily etc. It does shoot a watery substance in spurts out the exhaust and it kinda smells like fluid, and the oil does smell quite a bit like fuel.

We have no where to really replace something major, so I'm taking it to a good friend of ours who's a Master GM Mechanic, but I would like to have all possible scenerios before taking it into him tomorrow.

Any help would be great, and I will do my best to cooperate.

93 Z28, A4 (Tranny Rebuilt at 79k, 92k on it now)

 

Since you are takng it to master mech I would just let him do it as he will no doubt start from the same point if you tell him stuff or not.

if you are curious best way to tell if blown head gasket invovling coolant (white smoke) is cooling system pressure test.

check oil for mirky milkshake like texture

check coolant level if low

 

Yeah - your guy should have all the tools to diagnose it correctly.

There is a small chemical tester that smells the coolant for presence of combustion gasses.

Could be the optispark, the way it runs sounds like a serious ignition or fuel problem, not a blown HG.