350 sbc about to puke on me?!?!

[0guagepa]

about 3 months ago i bought an 85 camaro for a project car i had big plans for it but i bought a house and it has now become my work car
Last night on my way home form work, (about 15 minute drive) the engine started to smoke. a few blocks from home it stalled a few times and i barely got her in my garage. It almost sounded like a deisel engine. first thought was my waterpump but I have plenty of water and antifreeze and there is good waterflo thrue the radiator. I had noticed a top end tap/knocking noise a while back on the rear driver side under the valve covers. and now im getting some white smoke out of my tail pipes. The car had been driving fine untill we had our first extremely warm day then this happens. Im really hoping its not my head gaskets cuz i cannot afford that right now. Other than that possibility what can i do to narrow down what the problems is?

[amac209]

not good..not good at all might be a head gasket but i'l leaning more towards intake manifold gasket it sounds as if coolant is getting in both the intake ports and the lifter valley. do not drive it like this. intake gaskets are'nt to difficult to change. just remember one drop of coolant can destroy your engine bearings hopefully that hasn't happened yet. it sounds like theres some in the lifters already.
if you do a compression test and cooling system pressure test you'll know if it's head gasket/cracked head or intake.
if you replace the intake gaskets mark the distributor rotor position to distributor and distributor to intake then the timing will be dead on when you throw it back in. .. i hope you didn't already cook the motor.

[amac209]

oh yeah one more thing change your oil asap it's probably got coolant in it

[0guagepa]

well i parked it in the garage and i cant get it to a shop till tues or wed. im pretty good with fixing things on the outside of the engine but i wont touch the inside so i guess ill have to have someone do it for me.
I hope your right and its the intake gaskets, im sure that will be much less expensive then heads or head gaskets!

[amac209]

heads aren't to bad on a small block. after you get the intake off it just a couple more bolts and they pop right off