seanski69

Well I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to my 1990 Quattro Coupe 2.3L car and could use some advise.

It has 150,000 miles on it and my dad was the original owner. About 22,000 miles ago my father had new rings, rod bearings, new lifters,new valve guides with valve re-surfacing and a complete head overhaul. Pretty much the whole engine gone through. Car ran great!!!

Now my mother's car was in the shop so she borrowed my little coupe because her father was in hospital and was passing on which he did. Though he lived about an hour away from my mom so she was commuting several times a day and everyday to spend the list time with him she could. I cannot blame her for what occurred because I too wouldn't care so much about physical things when you are losing a loved one, but now I must deal with what happened.

Well I guess the radiator kinda wore out and the top outlet or inlet plastic piece cracked and the hose came off and some gas station jock got it somewhat reinstalled but it wasn't right and the car got hot. I think he busted the fan wiring as he was messing around under the hood. How hot. Well it pegged the Temperature Gauge at 170C but continued to run all the way till it reached my drive way. Then she turned it off saying that it was starting to run rough and overheat. Well I guess it did overheat because I opened the hood and the cooling system was full of a dark brown sludge as you can guess. OIL!!! Well I tried cranking car over and car cranks just fine but doesn't even attempt to restart.

I figure at minimum I have a blown head gasket and at most a complete boat anchor.

I am getting ready to do a compression check on it before I tear into it but I am curious as to what do I have to expect to be toast. Will the head be cracked? I was going to take it into a shop and have them pressure test but could use any other advise about what to look for. What about the block. Is it likely to be cracked and how would I tell? Any information or advise would be greatly appreciated as I have never had to tear down an engine this complex before or deal with an engine problem of this magnitude. Or if you have any parts I might need or just want to comment please do so.

Thanks,

Sean
Broken in Sacramento

GuyllFyre

Well, you can probably count the head as toasted.
Depends on how hot and for how long but I personally haven't seen a cracked block and I've seen some pretty toasted heads. Personally toasted the head on a 1.6l VW watercooled, swapped a replacement head on, and all was good.

The cast iron block is much more resilient to heat than the aluminum alloy head.

Also look for toasted wiring and vacuum lines, etc, behind/next to the head. When things get that hot under there, expect that close by rubber and plastic items are probably going to be damaged.

Definitely going to have to do a serious cooling system flush to get the sludge out.

Loudgoldwing

Your Mom put her own car in the shop, then ruined your car as well... I would advise against allowing her to operate any vehicle for the time being, if she's that distracted...

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

I'm with Loudgoldwing on this one! overheating and cracking the head is one thing, but.. how do you know how the bearings are the rings ok? did she run it low on oil?