MY bet is that it is valve seals. The white smoke you are seeing may be oil burning.


SMELL IT! burned antifreeze is very distinct. There is no mistake.


99 model will have age issues. unless you are noticing your antifreeze getting lower or extreme high pressure on your hoses. I would bet it is valve seals.


On another note: SOmetime clogged cats (MEOW) can harbor moisture and when the finally heat up they will burn water off that collects in the cats.

 

lol, when I first read this I thought "cat" meow. not catalytic converter. lol.

 

I haven't had the chance to check it yet thanks to work, but I'm off Saturday and will then. So far it seems the general consensus is coolant getting in. I'm assuming the compression test will help diagnose it for sure? If I have no compression whatsoever what does that mean? or If I have compression in only some of the cylinders? Also if my compression is fine?

 

Not yet.
It has been idling very rough. I haven't driven it much due to not wanting to possibly do more damage, but it doesn't seem to have any power loss.

 

What I believe you'll find is 7 cylinders with the same compression, and one with low compression.

That means... bad news and a lot of work.

But work that is justified because you tested what you could before you started taking stuff apart.

and it should identify where the issues is, by at least narrowing it down to one or two cylinders.

 

What kind of bad news are we talking? I've got plenty of time this week so I'm not too concerned with that. Just hopefully a repair I can handle myself. I also found out it's had a history of overheating a few times according to the previous owner.