head_gasket_debacle

Please help me, I just witnessed the craziest thing I've ever seen a car do. I've been having a problem with my starter/key connection. I turn it over and sometimes it starts, sometimes it doesn't. Anyway, for the past week or two, it's been getting worse and a few times I thought the car just wasn't going to start. I know I should have fixed it when it started, but didn't have any money and was just trying to make it a few more weeks and then I won't have to drive it for awhile and could save to mend its wounds. Anyway, I wasn't lucky enough to make it to home plate and ended up with the following saga. I go to start the car tonight and it doesn't start - surprise! I turn it over again, no go, do it again, it starts to turn over, slows down and then starts, but it sounds really funky. I turn the key to off, and it makes an ungodly noise. To make it stop, I try turning the key over again. The car starts, the terrible noise is gone, but the funky sound is back. I turn the key to off again and the terrible noise is back. Then, I just turned the key from off to on and the car went from terrible noise to running without me actually turning the key over. I am out of options. I can't turn my car off. I turn it to ON and it is running, I turn the key to off or take the key out and it makes a terrible noise and the starter is turning over. I couldn't figure it out, but it sounded as if the starter was continuously turning over when the key was in the off position and that the starter was still trying to start the car even though the car was running and in the ON position. I had no idea what to do. I backed the car out so it would be easier to tow if need be, but wasn't sure what to do and was too scared to try to disconnect the battery while the car was on -- can this be done? In order to avoid major problems with neighbors getting out of the alley in the morning I backed it into my parking spot and while doing so, the car began to die. I parked it after there was no power to the wheels. I began to see smoke rising from under the hood. I jumped out and then the smoke began to billow out as the car slowly died - the car still sounding as if it was trying to start, turning over more and more slowly until the car finally died. At this point the smoke is amazingly thick. It literally looked like the car was on fire. The entire alley was filled with pure white smoke. It smelled aweful. The smoke finally subsided, but the aweful smell is still there. I'm assuming I burned my starter beyond belief. Did I hurt anything else? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have a '99 Outback that blew a head gasket driving into the Colorado mountains over the weekend. I don't know how long it was overheated prior to pulling over, but I'm assuming there will be damage to the heads, cylinders etc. Rather than just fixing the gaskets, heads etc., I have found someone who puts in 2003 Forester engines into '99s that have blown gaskets. I am skeptical about this process though because he will have to modify the manifold etc. to make it work with the current set up. Does anyone have any information about this conversion or any suggestions as to the likelihood of this switch working and not having major problems down the road? Also, if I did put in the 2003 Forester engine, does anyone know if it will hold its value when I go to sell it down the line? Thanks ahead of time.