truck wont start, white smoke

[spraymonkey]

i have a 1996 Ford Ranger Xlt 4x4 4.0L 5sp manual,

i know i need head/intake gaskets because i get the awesome white smoke when i start it up and it runs kinda crappy until she gets warm then its fine.

Today it did its usual and then i ran a short distance to the store and shut it off then went to fire it up and all it did was roll over until it sat for about 20 mins then it fired up, i checked the exahust pipe and there was some sort of liqued in the tail pipe could be coolant/condensation i dont really know, all i do know is, is that the plugs/wires, maf, coolant temp sensor, ect ect, ive been through everything even replaced some bad vacuum lines, also checked the fuel pressure and that seems fine didnt really use a tester just made sure it had a good spray when i pushed in the valve, also no overheating...yet.

So my question is, is the coolant running into the cylinder when its off? and thats what is causing my "no start" symptom? or am i missing something?, please any advice or insight would be appreciated because im going to tear down the top end today and get the head gaskets changed out.

[CodyXLT]

It could be your intake seals are bad. that was wht was wrong with mine and it seems to have the same problems espically when its cold outside. i would also check for lose spark plugs, fuel delevery system, and the engine seals.

[spraymonkey]

went through the plugs yesterday and found a couple broken vacuum lines, the plugs are all tight and the wires are good too, freeze plugs are good checked those when i replaced the plugs last weekend.

[doorgunner]

the vacum modulator is bad on your A/transmission (just picking)...

do a compression test first on the cylinders (hate to see you yank theheads when the problem is elsewhere)

while the sparkplugs are out--pressurize the coolant system/let it sit for an hour or so & see which cylinders are getting coolant in them

[spraymonkey]

yea intake was blown but since im down this far im doing the heads anyway and probably the valvetrain while im at it, ya i was rushing about it and freaking out due to the fact that this is my only vehicle so i bypassed the tests and just tore it down, which actually was fun since this is the 2nd time i have ever tore down a motor lmao!.