OK, I bought a 91 2wd for $300 a couple of months ago for my daughter, she's 15 and will be driving soon. It has a 22-RE w/ 154K miles and a 5spd. The guy I bought it from said that he hadn't really ever driven it because he was going to fix it up and use if for a work truck, but he had started it before and said that it ran kind of rough and was blowing white smoke. So I thought, - head gasket, no biggy, I can do that. I think it has been sitting for at least a couple of years so I put new plugs in it and squirted some oil in the cylinder and let it sit for a few days and then tried to crank it over. If I used starting fluid it would start and I noticed one of the bolts is missing on the lower right end of the exhaust manifold and smoke would come out of that hole. I pulled the exhaust manifold and noticed that the theaded bolt was gone, the theaded hole had nothing in it and that's where the smoke was coming from. Does that sound right? If one of the manifold studs is missing could exhaust smoke come from one of those holes?

Also, I found a guy that said he had a newly rebuilt 22-RE head that he would sell me for $80, I'm tempted but don't know if I really need one yet. I'm thinking, maybe new head gasket for sure, I just don't know yet.

What do you guys think?