I have a 92 civic ex and the other day I was driving and the engine started to choke. A few minutes later white smoke was comming out of the exhaust like crazy. I was burning prestone. After all the prestone was gone it ran fine but it started to overheat(obviously). Now I'm working on taking my head off because I think it's a head gasket. The car is old (250ks) so it's a pain in the a?? to take all the parts off. There is no prestone in my oil or vice versa. I just want to know if it's a head gasket or am I wasting my time. When I started it this morning it was running fine no pigging or knocking. I figured it was the prestone in the chamber(s) that was making it choke. Please reply because I don't want to spend all these hours taking the head off if the block is done. There is also no leaks where the head gasket is located but I figured it could be broken on the inside.

 

white smoke and overheating are signs of a bad headgasket. Pulling the head out shouldnt isnt that hard.
Good Luck

 

Prestone antifreeze?
Let me see if I have this correct, you added something then it started to choke out and puff white smoke, then overheat???but it was fine prior to adding this stuff?
What was in your radiator prior? water? nothing?...
Do a compression test and leakdown test prior to pulling the head, it may save you some money.

 

no I did an antifreeze flush 2 months ago because it was borderline overheating and it worked t'ill last night when something gave in and all my antifreeze went out the exhaust.It left a huge trail of thick white smoke. I didn't add anything to it after that because I figured it would do damage.

 

check the head gasket thats probably it. if it looks fine than your rings are toast. why not just use antifreeze? hmm