Well, my 89 V6 had started smoking a little from the engine bay awhile ago. From the looks of it it was the valve cover gasket onto the exhaust manifold (mostly the drivers side). Replaced that and it stopped smoking...as much. Sometimes it would a little but I figured it was residual. Keep in mind I only drove it once or twice for short distances.

Here's the problem. The other day the check engine light came on. Fixed some of the vaccuum lines that were damaged-light turned off.

Went for a long drive, about 30 miles in light turned on again but ran fine. Eventually it was obvious it was only running on 5 cylinders. Found #2 was not working. It's getting spark but I replaced the plug anyway. Same thing.

Oh wait, there's more. Realized my coolant resevoir was empty, other than a thin brown sludge lining. I flushed the system but I don't intend on driving it. Truthfully I don't know how long it has been like that. I only use the Montero for off road so I'm not that carefull with it.

I naturally assume head gasket, but why is #2 not working. Also my there is ZERO smoke coming out of the tailpipe even on cold start.

What do you think? How bad is it? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />