broken already? please help

i've got a problem with my 89 CRX. when i start it up, it idles kinda rough and it farts out white smoke. this goes on for a couple minutes, then it runs fine. this mostly happens when its hot, but recently it happens after every start-up. yesterday the car nearly overheated, i check the coolant, and its all gone! i had just filled it 3 weeks ago. i did a tune-up, the plugs werent fouled or anything, and i replaced the fuel filter. my first guess was that the resonator has material from the old catalytic convertor in it, and when it got hot it melted, and as it cooled it blocked the exhaust a bit. now that the coolant is disappearing, i am confused. any help would be appreciated :frown:

white smoke and disappearing coolant, eh?

head gasket, perhaps?

That's what I was thinkin as well, head gasket. Have never had this happen to me, but it seems like whenever I read someone with white smoke, a lot of times it happens to be the head gasket.

had same problems, it's the headgasket..payed 650 to get mine replaced and ended up replacing the engine months later :banghead:

sounds like headgasket to me. mine did the same thing when i had my 89. cost me about $120 to fix doing all the work myself.

yeah thats what i was thinking too, but usually on head gaskets, you get power loss due to loss of compression? my dad says it might be a cracked water jacket in the block. damn..$650, i can have a low mileage engine put in for $700, and that way i wouldn't have to mess with my stripped drain plug anymore...

thanks guys, and keep the ideas comin :)

run a compression test... but I'll thow down 10 to 1 that its a head gasket going out. Been down that road a couple times, Its really not too hard to fix it if you have tools.