So I finally get my brick running after 6 months and it turns out that I think I have either a cracked block or head or bad head gasket. WHen I first got the engine running, I noticed an iordinate amount of white smoke coming out the tailpipe... didn't think much of it, but now after I've had it running a bunch of times, it is still belching out white smoke. I haven't gotten the car registered and back on the road yet, I've just been running it in the driveway.

This morning after I started it, the intake manifold side of the engine (B230F, non-turbo) was steaming... and it smelled strongly of antifreeze. I noticed it because the radiator fan was sucking the steam towards the fan. I checked the upper radiator hose and it was not leaking, nor was the thermostat junction... I couldn't see anything visibly wet, but it looked like the enitre side of the engine was steaming... I checked the overfill tank and didn't notice any bubbles nor have I noticed coolant loss overall.

This engine has 240K miles, but did have the head off the car at about 110K miles due to a timing belt mishap.

So, here's my questions...

1 How do I definitively go about pinpointing the problem?

AND...

1. where do these blocks normally form cracks?
2. same question about the heads?
3. Are cracked blocks/heads common?
4. how expensive are used engines/heads?
5. If the head gasket is bad, what is the normal repair procedure?
ie, is milling the head mandatory? Can I just put a new gasket on
and drive? etc.
6. Has anyone else seen this?
7. How long can you drive the car with this condition?

any and all advice at this point would be greatly appreciated... I am just about at the end of the line in terms of patience with this car and I am considering scrapping it and fixing my honda instead.
4. are bad head gaskets common?