KA24E Weird Idle Problem with allot of white smoke

[dangrizzly]

I went to best buy this morning with my 240 no problems. When I left best buy however I tried to turn on the car and nothing. I than started pumping the gas pedal as I cranked and I got the car to turn on but the idle was really off and it started blowing out allot of white smoke. I was able to drive her home but with noticeably reduced power and occasionally backfiring. This just came out of nowhere. I have recently changed the plugs, wires fuel filter about a month ago so I don't think their related. One problem the car has had since I got it was that the idle would bounce up and down from 600 to 800 but it never really affetced the performance of the car. Please Help. I think it might be the distributor but could maybe the MAF have something to do with it. I also recently installed a new exhaust on it and thier is a small leak by the CAT could that have something to do with it? Any suggestions would be helpful.

[rotorimp]

IF it hasn't been over heated then look inot your choice of spark plugs. I had this EXACT problem. I got some BOSCH platinum plugs--I changed back to NGK's no problem since

[5upra]

white smoke is steam...blown headgasket possibility. Check compression to confirm that. If its not that then you have some way that the coolant is reaching the combustion chamber....look for coolant leaks

[OldmanPurdy]

I've never seen any KA that didn't bounce the rpms around so I wouldn't worry about that, an exhaust leak isn't great but won't cause any real problems either, It has all the symptoms of a blown headgasket so i would start with 5upra's advice and do a compression test and see where that gets you.