New Headgasket installed and...., I have some questions. Options

[ETNRIDER]

Last Sunday night my Celica hat it first break down. I noticed it was knocking really hard about 1.5 miles from my house. It was not overheating and I had no check engine lights on so I limped it home as easy as I could. Pulling up my driveway (all 50ft) it blew at least a 75-foot high white cloud out the tail and had white smoke pouring out of the hood and died. After I got done cussing and throwing crap I called a shop up the street and a guy that has some trust in my area and a lot of people recommended came over and said I had no compression and was 99% sure I blew a head gasket probably between the 2 and 3 cylinders by the smoke. I towed it to his place and bought a headset, oil change, coolant, plugs and wires. He brought it back to me today but I could not test-drive it because my wife was at work and I had my daughter. So I just went out for a ride and it smoked like a train out the tail and anytime I stopped I could barely see for the smoke/steam coming out from under the hood. Note: that I did not have my under plastics on the car and the roads where damp but it didn’t smell like just water. I called the guy and of course no answer so now I am in a panic.

I have worked on cars and all seems normal to me but I just need a second opinion so I can stop worrying about that ^(%@ Celica . Does everything sound normal to you all?

Thanks

(it's a 1995 GT Auto)

This post has been edited by ETNRIDER: Mar 14, 2009 - 8:10 PM

[Bitter]

well is the coolant low? hows the oil level? wheres it smoking from under the hood?

[ETNRIDER]

well is the coolant low? hows the oil level? wheres it smoking from under the hood?

All the fluids are perfect. The smoke is comming from around the manifold. I think it is mostly burning off the splatter from where the coolant got on everything when the head blew and during the change.

[Bitter]

let the engine cool and pour some water over the exhaust manifold, the mech should have cleaned that up post repair.