White smoke start coming from the under the hood and it looks like it’s come straight from the bottom of the ac compressor. Any help would be appreciated

The leak is coming directly under this on the back

 

That could be coolant leaking from a lower intake manifold (LIM) gasket at the front of the intake. The late 90s 4.3Ls were notorious for them failing.

In the worst case scenario they'd suddenly and catastrophicly fail, dumping coolant into the lifter valley, ruining an engine in seconds from the bearings being exposed to coolant instead of oil.

Might your "white smoke" be water vapor?

Check you engine oil for contamination, e.g., brown sludge. If there is none, and it turns out to be the LIM gasket, it can be fixed.

This is a repair that can be done at home. There are several threads on the forum on the topic.

I found the repair annoying due to all the other stuff that had to be removed to get at the gaskets.

 

Hoping it’s not that but I’m gonna do some digging into it tomorrow. The white smoke is from the coolant burning on the engine I’m pretty sure. I thought this was Freon at first but then the car started over heating. If it’s the worse case scenario mentioned above is it even worth trying to fix it or would I be better off scrapping it?

 

If it is only leaking to the outside, it is well worth keeping. You might have caught it in time.

What does the engine oil look like? If it looks fine, you are likely ok.

Do you have oil pressure and does the engine sound ok? If no to both I would think you are fine.

I remember another member having coolant dump into the lifter valley but he said that because he was using full synthetic, it was fine.

Perhaps another member can add their thoughts.

If the coolant has been pumped through the engine, it is likely toast.

 

When my LIM gaskets went my crankcase was overfilled by at least a quart and the oil looked like a chocolate milkshake. I did the gaskets, replaced the oil a few times and then got back on the road. This was around 75k miles ago.

George