ok so im a newbie here so dont make fun of me for not knowing what to do here. My 90 eagle talon that i just bought a month ago is smoking really bad, kind of a blue smoke.

i start it in the morning and it runs great, then about 5 to ten minutes later it starts running really rough and a whitish kinda blueish smoke comes out, i gave it a new oil change about a week ago and know it was already a quart low and i only drove it 1k miles, and the collent was a lil low, but a hose was leaking and i fixed it but its low agian, and i dont see any leaks, there is a loud ticking when the engine is running, and i replaced all the old vacume lines because they were all cracked, and i put a new ecu in it.

would it be the head gasket or something worse or what.

blueish tinted smoke means that your burning oil.. most likely culprit is your piston rings.

EDIT: actually I reread your post and it sound like your head gasket or cracked valve cover

so which one should i check first and how do I? I am really new at this, sorry for all the dumb questions I am only 17 and this is my first car.

really no way to "check" just replace the gasket and see if it fixes it. they are cheap. maybe $15 and also MAKE SURE to buy a haynes repair manual for your car. it will give your the torque specs and everything for the reinstallation process and also give a detailed how-to.

Need List:

1) Head gasket

2) RTV Sealant

3) Haynes Repair Manual

4) A few hours of free time

me and a buddy replaced a engine and a auto tranny in his 97 eclipse rs, so do you think all this i can do myself, and wouldnt putting a headgasket require like two days of work?

+ alot on head gasket. and if ur new at this and not very mechanic inclines take it in to the shop it will cost a arm n leg but if ur not sure if u can do it dont attempt it. ull have to re do ur timin and torqur head bolts down right n in the right order.

what about the piston rings and valve cover?? Thanks in advance for all the helpjavascript:emoticon(':liebe011:')

Check your compression that will tell your how your rings are and as for valve car I HIGHLY doubt thats the case.

valve cover wouldnt cause oil to leak in the motor but it could be leakin to check that look for cracks and get a new gasket for it not even a 10 min fix for the valve cover gasket lol. and as jonny b said do a compression test and tell use the results

178 p.s.i

180 p.s.i

170 p.s.i

175 p.s.i

i belive that is a good compression so that leaves onlt the head gasket id think

+1 change the head gasket. not hard. if you have done a motor swap then you should be able to do a head gasket easily lol.

ok well i think i will start on that tomarrow, but one more thing, will i need any special tools, or anything other than the regular shop tools and a haynes manual, which i already have

just 10 12 n 14mm sockets/wrenched and a 12mm star socket for the head bolts with a half inch torque wrench

a cam sprocket puller

i left the cam gears on when i did mine lol