Miata HEAD GASKET CHANGE? theres smoke coming from the heade

Miata HEAD GASKET CHANGE? theres smoke coming from the headers how do I replace it costs?
i think this is what is bad but im not exactly sure an idiot I lent my car to overheated it really bad, since smoke just comes out from the exhaust piping around where it comes out of the engine is this the famous "blown head gasket"?

If it smoke comed out the exhaust pipe after the engine warms up that was white, I could say yes.
But if it's smoke off the exhaust header, I could say no. It may be spilled oil.
However at least one heater tube runs under this assembly and there's an O ring at one end that may fail, there's also a heater hose in that area that can develop a leak. The flange that connects these to the water pump is a trick to do as vision in the neighborhood is constrained.
If these hoses or fittings failed you could have the signs you describe also.
One more thing that can be a fault is the water pump. The Miata engine doesn't over heat unless there's a failure some place in the coolant system. A water pump failure may be projected at about 15 years of service or 140 thousand miles these numbers are depending on when mine failed .
Either way it could seem a trip to the shop is in order.

Not essentially.you may have just warped the header and you're leaking exhaust gases.

You can test for a blown head gasket in some ways. one you may be able to purchase a test kit at Kragen's, Autozone, etc. that tests for combustion gases in the coolant, two you may be able to pressure the cooling system with a pump, then pull the spark plugs and look for coolant on the spark plugs.

Either way is a sure fire technique.

Don't pull the head unless you must. You may only have to remove the headers and have them planed to flatness again.

That sounds like it is your exhaust gasket not the head gasket that is leaking,if it was your head gasket,you could be losing compression power and a whistling sound,furthermore if your head gasket was blown because of your engine overheating,the heads could must be checked for warpage