[FlyingDutchman]

Car must have overheard my conversation about buying a more fuel efficient daily driver

Some background on the car: '97 Z28, just rolled 118k, actually blew a HG in 2008 but ended up bending a rod. So, motor was rebuilt with fresh seals at around 64k by a local mechanic. Nothing crazy done to the car, just whatever is listed below. It's seen maybe 30 track passes in its life, as recent as 2 weeks ago.

Fast forward to today. Car has been running great with no problems.. until I was on my way home and at a stop light it started misfiring. Using Dash Command on my phone, it indicated Cylinder #7 to be misfiring. I figured it might be something dumb like a loose spark plug (has OTVC setup, so wires are good) or something of the likes.

Idling in the driveway and I notice an awful smell and a bit of smoke, but its cold so I just assume its normal for this time of year. Shut the car off for a bit to do some reading and return a short while later only to find nothing obviously wrong. I then thought maybe the opti was taking a dump or having issues with the heavy fog this morning.

So I start it up again and it idles like ****. I notice a pillar of white smoke behind me and shut the car off. Talk to my dad a bit and go to show him whats going on. Attempted to turn the car over only to be greeted with an all to familar BANG! but not as loud as the one in 2008 (oddly enough, I parked in the same spot in the driveway where this same thing happened...) Obviously the motor is now hydro-locked

To verify my assumption, I check the radiator (empty) and pop the oil fill cap off (looks like phlegm). Unless I'm overlooking things here, I think its the passenger side HG which may also be the same side this happened to 54k miles ago.

So my options are:
1) Burn the car to the ground and move on with life
2) Bring it to a mechanic and probably pay around $1500+
3) DIY

Tempted to do it myself I've pulled the intake off, did the exhaust, upgraded brakes, etc. so I consider myself mechanically inclined, but this would be a whole new level.

I've read quite a few threads and stuff about the basic removal and what not. But a few questions remaining I haven't found solid answers for yet include:
1) Can this be done on the car without dropping/pulling the motor?
2) How do you clean all that nasty sludge/phlegm-like stuff out?
3) How can I be 100% its the HG and not like a random hole in the water jacket? (ruling out all possibilities)

I'm sure I'll come up with other questions...

Sorry for the long post