I need some advice/expertise from anyone here.

In the last 2 months I've notice my car losing power and the exhaust starting to sound a little sluggish. And in the last 2 weeks the car has begun to overheat on long uphill routes.

The radiator/hoses have no leaks. I flushed the cooling system. Sometimes I hear a whining/squeaking noise when I drive, I'm thinking this might be the water pump?

And when I start the car as the engine has cooled/is cold I get about a 5-12 second white cloud of smoke out the exhaust.

I can run the car on flat ground for a pretty good distance and everything is fine just kinda weak power but still drives at normal speeds.

If anyone has any ideas that would be greatly helpful. Someone said it might be the head gasket is blown.Has anyone tried those head gasket repair liquids?

If I can't figure it out I'm ready to sell the car as is.

thanks

 

You need to look first at replacing the water pump but, I fear that there is a bigger problem here. The white smoke seems to indicate to me that you have a head gasket issue

 

Have you checked the condition of the oil to see if water is present in it (mlky whit)? Have you been loosing anti-freeze? If you let it sit overnight then pull the plugs and blow compressed air into the cylinders you will get anti-freeze blow out the plug hole where the leak is. The white exhaust smoke will need to be thick and sweet smelling for it to contain anti-freeze. Over heat on up hills could be marginal radiator as well. I've not tried those fixes-in-a-bottle as I usually determine that a proper fix is worth my labor and parts purchase. How many miles on the engine?

 

no water in the oil and no loss of antifreeze

Are there any diagnosis for a cooling system leak if I don't have access to compressed air where the car is parked?

car has 174,000 miles

 

Well, if you're not getting anti-freeze loss then chances of a leak are small. If the HG is leaking into the cooling jacket from the cylinder then the coolant will bubble and show exhaust smoke when rad cap is removed, you would also get constant overheating, not just on up hills. But that kind of a leak will also cause a lot of coolant to enter the cylinder and be very noticable with a constant thick white smoke out the exhaust. It would also misfire I'm thinking.Right now it does not sound like HG. Shop can pressure test cooling system which will not cost very much and can be done in about 10 minutes but again it does not sound like you have a leak. Can you do a compression test? That would be my next step. To access WP flow requires you remove the rad cap when engine is cold and starting engine to let it warm up to allow the thermostat to open thenwatching for flow through the open rad cap. You will get some overflow as coolant heats. Alternately you can remove the thermostat and just watch the flow on cold start-up.You also need to make sure the cooling fan is coming on when engine heats up. When WPs fail at the shaft bearing (squeaking?)they usually leakcoolant out the weep hole at the shaft. Is the rad original?Also check for blockage ofair flow at rad, I once had a squirrel build a nest in the front of my rad - no he didn't go along for the ride.

 

after inspection of water pump area, the belt that turns the water pump (fan belt?) seems to be very very worn, down showing threads. Could this be a cause of the water pump not turning at it's maximum power which in turn is causing the uphill overheating because of the high stress on the belts of going up hill and maybe the worn belt also causing the incosistent squeaking?

 

What year is your car and what engine do you have? The water pump is usually driven off the timing belt, not an external pulley. Are you looking at the right belt?

 

Not working water pump would not explain loss of power neither white smoke.
If the head gasket is blown you can not repair that with liquids, the pressure and temperatures are too high there.

You may have a water leak somewhere in the intake system. I don't know if Toyota does it but it's rather usual to have the water going through the intake manifold into the head, and when this gasket is blown the water enters the cylinders. The loss of power could be due to this leak, the air leak actually.

 

I heard it mentioned but I didn't see a follow up to the question. CHECK THE COMPRESSION. If the cars blowing blue / white smoke on start up that is one of a couple things. One of those likely causes is worn piston rings / cylinder walls. If the compression is below spec, I'd imagine your engine is tired and needs to be rebuilt.