93 Escort died on Highway

[Hailley]

My 93 Escort had been puffing out some
white smoke when it sat too long at stoplights, etc. ....

I took a long driving tour yesterday and the engine temp was fine until I got into a small town and stopping and starting. I turned on the heater to pull some of that away from the engine block. That seemed to help.

I stopped for a while to walk along the beach, and
about ten minutes after I got back in the car, I was driving along the highway at about 70+, smelled a funny burning plastic smell and lost compression. Very little white smoke out the back, if any.

Car is fine on oil and had plenty of coolant...

Roadside mechanic said probably a sensor of some kind....

Anyone have any ideas?

What I'm looking for are good ideas that I can feed to a mechanic rather than having them tow it to the only dealership nearby and have them put it on their magical mystery computer...Obviously, if I'm still driving the car, I'm on a limited budget.

Thanks!!