2003 XC70 Steam rising eng rear, exhaust bubbling reservoir

[thecoolcoder]

HELP!

My radiator got a hole and lost coolant. The flaky instrument cluster panel comes off and on and did not alert me to low coolant. It got hot apparently and when i pulled over, I saw it had no coolant, but had steam rising the full exhaust manifold width from down below in the exhaust manifold pipe shroud.

I refilled the coolant reservoir when I got it towed home and it was cool when I did this. I did not put cold coolant in the hot engine, it was cold when I added coolant. I fired it up and it it rough idled and sounded like a lifter ticking louder than usual. THEN steam started rising. The coolant reservoir clearly has exhaust gas bubbles bubbling in it.

MY QUESTIONS:

1) I am sure it has a blown head gasket at a minimum. Because the steam rises from the rear of the engine, do i have a cracked head or cracked block as well?

2) What is the likelihood that it is just the head gasket and nothing else?

3) Did I fry my turbo?

4) Is head gasket replacement a DIY job or one for the the professionals only?

5) should I replace the head because of new lifter ticking sound? Will turbo make such a sound if fried? It comes and goes.

Steam is not coming out the tailpipe, but up in the rear engine compartment, down lower, rather.

Can anyone troubleshoot this here? I have worked on the car a lot, but never so deep as deep engine repair. 175K miles. The car ran fine before this. Starts easy now, but starts steaming from engine rear immediately even when cold. 10 seconds and steam rises form full width of exhaust manifold pipe shroud, but from down below it it seems. The exhaust connections are intact. The steam rises straight out of the engine rear but I cannot see where. Why would it rise from back there and not just come out of the tailpipe????

Please advise. I appreciate all that have contributed to this forum, so helpful in the past.

[vtl]

You need pressure test to figure out if the head developed a crack. Head gasket replacement is a DIY job, BUT the head needs to be machined. Steam is a bad indication of warped head.

Turbo should be fine as far as it had oil pressure in it and you didn't revved engine too hard.

I think at this mileage it may be cheaper/wiser to replace the whole engine with the used one with less miles. Really depends on how much damage your engine got.

And fix the instrument cluster!

[thecoolcoder]

How much is it to machine a head? What all needs to come off the engine? I have access to an engine and tranny that have 110K miles on it. Is it easier to swap out a motor and tranny than to replace a head? Engine and tranny are like $1200.00 that i have access to.

[vtl]

Head needs to be machined up to the spec (I don't remember the number, sorry). The problem is you may burn the money and figure out that the head is cracked.

$1200 sounds like a good deal. Transmission should have a lot of meat left in it.