98 escort zx2 smoke from engine and tailpipe

[cbear]

A week ago I checked my oil and it was very low(almost none) so I put 2 qts in. Then I headed for the store and got down the street and smoke started pouring from the tailpipe and the car died. I restarted it w/ no problem and got it back home smoking all the way. I lifted the hood and started it back up and noticed little puffs of smoke coming from under the engine on the left side and still pouring out the back. I checked the dipstick and it said it was way overfilled, so I emptied some of the oil out from the oilpan. When I started it back up again there is hardly any smoke (but still enough) and now the coolant reservoir is boiling after a few minutes of running in idle and my fan won't come on. Does this sound like a gasket leak, dripping coolant into the engine? There was no water in the oil when drained and I did not have any problems with the car before. Is there something I can check or would it be easier to just take it to a shop and bite the bullet?

[BMW320i]

The smoke is white right? You more than likely have a bad head gasket. THe water appears to be boiling since a cylinder is leaking into it building pressure. This is not related to the oil unless oil is getting into the water. It will appear grey and slimy.

[cbear]

Yeah the smoke is white. How much does changing a head gasket usually cost? Thanks for the help

[BMW320i]

Those cars are pretty easy to do a head gasket on. Call some shops and get prices. Just tell them you want the price for a new gasket installed parts and labor. How many miles on the car.

[cbear]

The car has 137,956 miles. I called 4 shops and the lowest price I got was $480, but that still sounds kind of high. Is that a good price, or should I search around some more?

[BMW320i]

That does not sound to bad to me. If my car ran good before I would pay that. I will check tomorrow and see how many labor hours are listed for that job. Parts prob run at least $100. Make sure you get some kind of guarantee though. Anyone can slap a head on but you need to make sure the shop does the necesarry checks to make sure the head is still good. Prob is but if it is not it will just blow agian. You can also ask the shops how many hours the book calls for. This is what they charge by times the hourly rate they have. Plus parts.