Van has been intermittently having rough start and white smoke from tailpipe for months now. Van had complete tune up and new distributor at 96,000 miles. Symptoms started soon afterward. Van has never overheated and always runs on cooler side. Coolant overflow reservoir is often needing to be topped off. No external leaks detected and radiator/water pump/thermostat/hoses were replaced due to age last year. Van just started misfiring on freeeway very randomly. SES light comes and goes. Last time it was on, Pep Boys said it was misfire on Cylinder 6. SES light not on now. Van drove nicely down to shop...mechanic says, just based on fact that it is using coolant somewhere and puffing white smoke upon cold start, that it must be the head gasket. He has not done compression check or anything else to diagnose. I am tempted to put some kind of Stop Leak in, since the symptoms are so intermittent and because he does not want to work on the van. Any thoughts? What kind of Stop Leak is best? Van will start and drive just fine some days, with initial white smoke upon start up that clears up when you start to drive it. Other days, it misfires.
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