Rattling, white smoke

IS the engine turning over and not starting or is it not cranking at all (turn the key nothing happens.) ?

it trys to start. won't turn over. but I did get it to start once. rode around the block. drives EXTREMELY ROUGH. lots of whte smoke coming from exhaust. no sign of water in oil

White smoke is a sign of head gasket failure
it must've been overheating on you
have the head gasket checked

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test



good luck

now it won't start at all. jus tries. is the headgasket the only thing it could be??

White smoke, no start .
I would say headgasket failure
reason for no start low or no compression
due to headgasket failure

so what would make the car start only sometimes. like say I drive for a while. turn car off, have to wait an hour then it will start again. why does it do that?? and thanks for ur help! I really appreciate it!

Don't discount the possiblility of multiple problems. The engine may be so hot it is causing a failure of the ignition module as an example that needs to cool off before it restarts or that steam is shorting a components(s).
Coolant may have contaminated the front o2 sensor or converter, that may be causing a no start from a rich condition or the cat plugging.

You don't want to keep driving like this or it can seriously escalate the cost from more damage.

BTW....Very...nice pic !

your pic looks like my grandfathers austin. he drag races

I wish I could take credit for that pic...Actually found on a google seach for something else and it caught my eye...really like it. Getting close to change it, been a few years.

I'm not real familiar with the Austins.

I was thinking it was more of a plymouth.

well u can search for him. gary reinero. or reineros racing. in merced,ca

ok weird! just started the car and no more white smoke?? what the hell??? my car is weird!!! why all of a sudden no more smoke??

IS it still runing rough?

Coolant level down?

Might want to pull the plugs and pressure test the cooling system to see if it is leaking into the cylinders.

There is dye available also that can be added to the cooling system that can expose Head problems that will activate when exhaust gases are presence.





Cool story and car on you Granfather's site.

runs a little bit rough still. not so much. did pressure check...nothing present

Since it is obd II, might want to see what codes are present to save a little time.