I just recently bought this truck for 700.00 bucks. It ran good other than what someone told me was "piston slap". Well last week the check engine light came on when I first stated it. Drove it to work and was running rough! Hooked it up to scanner and it said that cylinder 4 was misfiring! Let it sit for like 12 hours and started it. The check engine light went out and was running fine again other than the "piston slap". Well last night had trouble starting it. It would just click. All the lights worked so I don't think it was a dead battery. When I did get it started it was pouring out white smoke like somone set off a smoke grenade. There was alot of water dripping out of the muffler and tailpipe. The truck has 128000 miles on it! Anyone know anything about what I'm describing? PLEASE HELP!!!!!!:banghead:

You are describing a head gasket failure. With a 2.2 its almost guaranteed!

How much money am i looking at then?

I think the question to ask is do you want to replace a head gasket on an engine with "piston slap". The first thing I would do is figure out if the noise you are hearing is piston slap and not something more serious. Piston slap should only be heard on a cold engine and should go away as the engine warms up. If it is continuous no matter the engine temp than it is something more serious.

If its worse than piston slap it might be more feasible to get a used engine in good condition.

If it is just piston slap the head gaskets are very easy to do on these engines. There have been plenty of these heads on the shop floor still steaming after being pulled off from a warm engine!

The "piston slap" sounds like an exhaust leak under the hood! I was told by a mechanic that it was "piston slap"! I took it in because I thought it was either an exhaust leak or something around the crank pulley! I think the sound is def loudest by the crank pulley. But the mechanic said he put the stethascope if thats how it's spelled all over the engine and there was no distinct area the noise was coming from! So I don't know what to do! The truck is in really good condition and was running and rode really nice before this mess!!!

I wonder if it wouldn't be better to bite the bullet and go with a good low mileage used engine?

The white smoke and misfiring is coolant being sucked into the cylinders from a breached head gasket. Run a leak-down test to confirm. If you're competent with tools, a head gasket replacement on that 2.2 won't be such a challenge. Do that, clean out the carbon build-up while you're at it, then see if you have piston slap. Good luck!

Just picked up a 96 2.2 from salvage yard and it only has 72000 miles on it! Cost me 600.00 bucks! Just gonna swap out the motors! Any things that need extra attention?

Should be a pretty easy swap.

Just out of curiousity, I am pretty much at the same point as the OP with the exception of the piston slap on a truck I just recieved on trade for a Mustang parts car. My question is what are the chances of finding a cracked block once the head is removed??? The only reason I ask is that I work for a used car lot and he traded one in that was diagnosed by a local garage as a cracked block in the middle of the head gasket swap. I tried some pellets and the smoke seemed to clear up, so I want to go back and try to start it today and see if it still has the rough idle today. I don't expect the pellets to fix the issue but was using them as a diagnosis because they shouldn't fix the block if that is what is wrong. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Its more common to have a cracked head. I don't recall if I have ever had a cracked block.