1993 Chevy Camaro heating problems +

I'm going to try to give as much information as possible here but I should start, I do not know much in car mechanics, please bare with me.

I bought a used 1993 Chevy Camaro V6 automatic in FEB 07. The man who sold it to me, a friend of the company I worked for, assured me the damage to the car was all cosmetic damage (cracked dash, side of the seat was balding, and furnishing around the t-tops where flakeing away and comeing down.). However as it turn out him as well as the company ripped me off. The transaction went through, we got the title, set a date to get the insurance and plates registered amd the car sat in my lawn for a day. The day we went to get the plates the car wouldn't start the battery was completely dead and would not jump. My father, being the only thing close to a mechanic I have to use, replaced the battery and the car sprung to life. However, shortly after the problem was found that it didn't want to cool down as it should. The cooling fan would not spin up at all. My father tried replaceing relays which did not work and ended up createing a line from the fan to the battery operated by a toggle switch. Also the RPM would sit a little high, and would spring higher when placed in park. My father said it was possibly a bad intake and did someting with glitter to patch the problem up, however said it would only work as a temp solution. A while later it started making a rattling noise and my father had replaced the alternator, however the noise was still there. I ran it as a work car for a while and after a trip to mothers (300 miles north of me). While there I was leaving my brothers house and before I could even make it out of his small town the cars temp was in the red. I immediatly pulled the car over and noticed that we had lost alot of radiator fluid at the spot I pulled over to. After pushing the car back to my brothers house, I let it cool down, refilled the coolant and eased it back to my mothers house. When refilled the temp would raise slowly, but never go over the half way mark on the temp gage. I had a friend flush the radiator and refill it with some 50/50 and managed to make it back down to my fathers, the entire trip doing 70mph on the interstate never above a quarter on the temp gage. Most recently the problem occured again, flushing it out this time did not help. I seems to make a louder noise than before (drowns out the stero) and when in reverse makes a loud thumping sound. Also I can starting the car makes a big puff of smoke, it runs but only for about 5 minutes before going into the red on temp again. My father says I may have a cracked block or head, yet other friends of mine who work for a repoing company think diffrently.

I'm looking for any advice as to what the problem may be, how to fix it, what I need, and where I can get it. Or if its best to look for a new camaro, and test drive it a little better.

Thanks in advance