OT: Troubleshooting friend's rabbit.

[ty at festf.org (Tyler P.)]

Hey all,

My friend called me last night with car troubles.  Seems his rabbit (not
sure what year maybe a 79) is having problems.  It has the 1.6 engine in it
and he's not very good at studying a problem in order to describe it so my
description will be lacking as I haven't looked at the car.  He said
yesterday they car start really chugging along like it didn't want to go any
faster.  Sounded to me like when an engine starts to seize up if your low on
oil.  He said that then there was lot of steam coming from the radiator.  I
asked him where the steam was coming from and wanted make sure no white
smoke was coming out of the exhaust and he said no but I found out later
that bluish white smoke came out when he tried to start it again.  Thing is
that it seems like the car over heated,  then he tried to start it right
away and it drove for a few minutes and it died again.  He then walked
around the block, came back and the car was able to start but died again
later with the same symptoms.  In all, his description really didn't make
much sense so I'm going over to look at the car.  Could the car just be over
heated from a bad thermostat or water pump or maybe blocked hose?  Or does
it sound more along the lines of a bad head gasket?  Or even worse, bad
block or head?   

I would appreciate any troubleshooting tips when I go over there to narrow
down the list.  Thanks!