'92 Ford Escort Smoke BAD

Any help here is so greatly appreciated. I have a '92 Ford Escort LX. Rather suddenly last week it began to run very rough. It acts as though it's missing (but it's not), and it smokes terribly. Any suggestions on what may be the cause of this? I don't want to pay $75 to have it diagnosed.:banghead:

I assume the smoke is coming out the exhaust? Is it dark and oily or more like steam?

The engine is either running very rich, or you have a possible problem in the head allowing oil or coolant into the cumbustion chambers. Maybe pull a spark plug and have a look for fouling.

If you have the tools, try a compression test on the cylinders.