I recently drove my 1998 SE through some very heavy rain, and for one reason or another it began misfiring pretty badly. I drove it home, and the next morning was burning coolant very badly. I pull it apart and the upper manifold had a crack in a coolant passage and the lower manifold is covered in coolant, so I figured that was the problem. But lo and behold, after getting all the upper and lower manifold gaskets replaced along with the upper manifold itself, upon startup it is still pouring out white smoke. I'm thinking it was an unfortunate coincidence and had both a head gasket along with the manifold go bad at the same time. but oddly enough, I changed the oil right before reassembling everything, and there was none, I mean zero drops, of coolant in the oil. And no oil in the coolant either.
I hear that head gaskets don't go out typically on the 3800 engine, and I drive like a grandma. I was only doing 35 when all these problems arose. What would be a good first step to take?
