Driving down the highway S13 stalls

[B-Boy DuB-L]

So I was driving down I95 going around 70. All of a sudden I heard a bang and a sudden loss of power in 5th gear. I downshifted and still had no power and noticed white smoke coming from my exhaust. In 4th gear the car died so i popped the clutch to get it started since I was still not over far enough, it started but soon died again. I tried cranking it again and it started for 2 seconds and then nothing except for backfiring. Now I got it towed home and it wont start, not a surprise. It does crank and sometimes backfires. It is getting fuel and spark.
I'm thinking that it is the timing. Would it be the distributor or the timing chain. I would much rather get some opinions before I start the break down to look at the chains. I changed my head gasket about a year ago without and problems until now, not sure if that matters. I definitely need some help, sick and tired of bumming rides from people to school and work.

[sx moneypit]

Set the engine on TDC and see if the distributor rotor lines up correctly before you tear into the chain.

Are you sure the smoke was white and not bluish?




-Ben

[B-Boy DuB-L]

Im not completely sure if the smoke was white or blue. It looked white to me but I was also in the car when it was getting dark outside. Would the timing just randomly jump though? And when I had the loss of power it sounded as though s*** kept falling from beneath my car, it was really weird. I checked for any holes in the block and any leaks but I found none.

[sx moneypit]

Pull the spark plugs and take a look at them and while you have them out run a compression test, it will tell you a whole lot about the health of the engine.


-Ben