I've had misc. misfire codes for a while now. A mixture of "Random Misfire" and Codes for #5 and #3 in the past. Around the time that coolant loss became critical, it set a #5 misfire which still has not cleared out on it's own.

Today, I got into the engine. Drained the engine oil and remaining coolant, and removed the battery and similar plastic hoses and whatnot on the left bay. All the "junk" on the diver's side has now been removed, as well as the injector rail, hoses, coolant expansion tank. I've removed the top cover, timing covers, and the 40+ bolts for the top half of the head. I've levered a gap into the top cover, but have stopped until my IPD serpentine belt tool arrives this PM.

The Head Gasket guide I've been referring to is for a non-turbo car, but I've been able to work around the minor differences.

With the left inner fender well removed, I cranked the engine to #1 TDC (I hope) before I began major disassembly.

According to the guide, I may need to remove the starter and the PCV hoses along the "back" of the engine (Driver's side). My pcv hose is bad (broken plastic), but I'm not planning on doing the water pump, so maybe the starter can stay in. I didn't see anything odd around the water pump. Once I get the belts off, I'll check it for wobble.

The car has never really overheated. Even when the heater hose blew back in February, the temp never went above the midpoint. During this last spate of coolant loss, the temp did start climbing above normal and that's the main reason I parked it and have set about taking the engine it down to the head.

I've crossed my fingers hoping that I stopped running the car before serious damage via overheating occurred.

I've now got some Head Gasket questions, but I'll spawn a new thread for that.

I appreciate you guys puzzling over this problem. I'll report back with a photo as soon as I reach the Head.