Chrysler Repair: 1983 plymouth reliant cooling leak, head gasket leak, coolant leak

Question
Hi Roland,
I recently purchased a 1983 plymouth reliant 2.6 liter mitsubishi engine. Everything ran good for the first week. A show of smoke and slight loss of power revealed an oil leak from a hole in oil pan. after removing oil pan found strange gnarled metal bar inside oil pan! Every mechanic that has seen this metal concluded that it never belonged to engine and close inspection of engine from underneath with the oil pan off showed no signs of damaged metal. after removing metal flakes and metal bar and the dropping of a heavy magnet, new oil filter, i welded hole and installed oil pan back. car ran fine for about 2 weeks. would not start right away and when it did start would sputter and not last. waiting half an hour and several attempts would start fine. changed spark plugs. seemed fine. 2 days later would sputter start with white smoke for about 2-3 minutes than smoke would clear still not running smooth (almost nonexistant power in drive, shuddering)half an hour later starts normally. i noticed coolant seeping from where exhaust manifold meets rear of engine block. no water in oil pan and removed spark plug and checked inside, no water. I dont think the head gasket is blown but am dumbfounded, please help.

Answer
Hi Michael,
The combination of white smoke out the exhaust, low power, coolant leak at exhaust manifold is nearly certain a head gasket leak. It could be at any of the 4 cylinders so you would need to pull all 4 plugs after letting it cool down, inspect each plug, crank the engine to observe for ejection of coolant from spark plug hole to verify such a leak. You could also check compression as a verification.  
You might try loosening slightly/retorqueing the cylinder head as it could be not a frank break in the gasket but rather a too loose set of bolts. The final torque level is 75 foot pounds except for the two on the end which are 13 foot pounds. Maybe loosen all major bolts to about 69 and then retighten to 75. Pattern is by x's, outside/in too loosen, inside/out to tighten. I have had luck in stopping leaks due to loose bolts that way.
If that doesn't stop the leak then a gasket replacement is necessary.
Roland