'96 2.7l Head Gasket Help?

Hello,

New member here. Head gasket seems to have failed at 208,000 miles.
2.7 liter 3RZ-FE motor.

So, here's what happened:

Drove home from work 5 miles, and one mile from home I see the temp guage starting to get hot. Slowed down, ran the heater, and made it home and shut down with heater fan running.

When it cooled down, I pulled the radiator cap and added distilled water until full. Next day, drove a one-mile round trip out on my woods road, steam coming out of the tailpipe as the engine warmed up.

Engine started hard, and was bouncing around at startup like as if there was a cracked motor mount.

Temp guage went up towards 'too hot' as I got back to my driveway.

So I'm thinking 'blown head gasket' and maybe a cracked cylinder.

Won't know until I start tearing it down

Could use any advice on the correct sequence for removing the valve cover, and the rest. I want to get that coolant/water out of the Cylinder(s) ASAP to prevent any rust and potential seizing between cylinder and piston, right?

Thanks in advance for any advice, or links to existing threads.

Want to get my Baby back on the road as soon as possible.

 

My head gasket was leaking and oil was mixing with coolant, I ran some stop leak and it fixed it. I have put over 2000 miles on it. I know people don't like it but I plan to rebuid soon.