Alright i have a 1990 maxima with 256,000 miles. I know it is alot but the car was running fine no noise, no leaks, plenty of power, perfect shape. I was coming home the other day and all of a sudden it started to make some ticking noise and smoke rolled out from under the hood and the tailpipe. After a couple seconds of that it just fell to about 450 rpm and was still running then the oil light came on and it died. I tired to restart and it acted like the battery was dead and i was having problems like it was dead. I had somebody jump off to get me home and as soon as i let off the gas it dies. Still smokin from the egine and the tailpipe(blue smoke from the tailpipe)i can't tell what color the smoke from under the hood is. I have been doing searches for about three hours and this new damn thing where you have to wait 20 seconds between searches sucks ***. I have kept the car well maintained. Oil change every 3k miles. I dunno the prob. ANy help is much appreciated. Maximas can run forever RIGHT???

 

Well since it still starts, the T-belt is probably still there. If you have low power and smoke, I bet you busted a piston ring. If the smoke is white, you might have blown a head gasket. Have it checked by a qualified mechanic and prepare to start looking for a replacement. If either of the above two things happened, it's cheaper to drop in a good used low mileage motor than to get it fixed.

You might get lucky and find out it's something simple, but there's no way to tell by your description. It's too vague

 

blue smoke oil...you've damaged something internally for sure. but it may not be too major. so keep your fingers crossed that you'll be able to eliminate the problems at a low expense.
good luck

 

Sounds like piston ring to me too. And yeah the T-belt is more than probably there..Its definately there. Sounds like a good oportunity to tear down that 250k motor and start with some internal mods.

 

if you do get an estimate to fix it pm me because Ive done some research on jdm engine replacement and I know a few good companys that arent too expensive so it may be cheaper to just get a low mile engine like Jeff said.

good luck