Cold/Warm start issues -- bad head gasket?

[bluscreen]

It sounds a it counterintuitive but I've seen clouds of white smoke from the exhaust when the cat or muffler is full of raw gasoline. Which would be symptomatic of other fuel system problems. Shorted thermotime switch for example.

Interesting-- do you happen to know of the best way to test/check to see if this is a fuel system problem or a head gasket problem?

I've checked the resistances across the thermotime switch, and it checked out. Since it's warm outside now, I suppose I could disconnect it and try to start the car. I'm just worried about trying to start it if there's a lot of coolant or something in it and locking the engine up.

For what its worth, I've always had to periodically add coolant to the reservoir. I've also always known that if I fill it any more than 1/3 of the way full, it'll just blow out of the overflow-- never knew if that was normal.

I can drain the oil from the car and inspect it. If there's coolant in it, I wonder if I could notice if there's a separation of coolant and oil.