Thanks to all who responded to my dilemma of white smoke, misfiring, and
funny temp gauge readings. It will be a couple of days before I get to check
compression to see if the head gasket is blown (hope not), and check the temp
transmitter. I had retorqued the head bolts after the rebuild (good tip), and
so far there has not been any appreciable loss of coolant (but it has not
run very long either). The observation that periodic starting of the engine
during the winter doing more harm than good was something I had not
considered. Thanks. The suggestion that there may be water in the gas was
interesting but I think unlikely in this case. However, it got me to thinking
about the last tank of gas I bought which was non-leaded regular (instead of
the premium I had been using since 72 Spits have 7.5:1 compression), and the
fact that in this state they start using a chemical additive in the gas
around November 1st each year which apparently causes some problems in some
older cars. If the misfiring is caused by the gasoline, could it result in
the white exhaust(and moisture) coming from the tailpipe? Will a vacuum leak
at the intake manifold contribute to this? Or am I just exercising wishful
thinking trying to aviod thinking about replacing the head gasket. Thanks
again for your time and insights.
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