How hot did this motor get before you noticed it needed a new rad! and what damage was done?

Good question Clive. If it got to hot for to long then head may have warped, cracked, or split head gasket and is now allowing coolant (or coolant/ oil mix) into cylinder or exhaust port.

White smoke is water/coolant, aslo has a destictive smell.

BLUE smoke is oil.

Black smoke is rich (too much fuel). :devious:

The car did not over heat at all - I took a preventative measure in replacing it. I actually don't see how it didn't overheat - the old radiator had large holes all the way through it! I tried replacing the vacuum lines today - it seemed to help a little, they probably needed replacing anyway. I also messed with the idle control...but to no avail. I am going to try redoing the timing tomorrow and see if that helps or fixes it. It seems like maybe the fuek/air mixture might have too much fuel in it too. I keep going back trying to figure out what I could have knocked when putting in the radiator but I just can't figure it out. But hey, thanks for all the input!

Hi

Is your car manual or automatic , if automatic the smoke can be transmission fluid comming from a bad vacummodulator valve .

,pull of the line giong to the valve ,cover the vacum hole in to the intake manifold and see if the smoke stops .

Zafer