S40 Over heated Blown Head Gasket - How Bad Can Damage Be

[msm15]

Hi I am looking into buying a 2000 s40 1.9T with 171k that overheated and probably has a blown head gasket. from what I could tell, the car ran out of coolant and over heated. The owner said he didnt drive long once it over heated he was going through a tunnel when it over heated and when he got out he pulled over and had it towed.

I went to look at the car - it is over in very very nice shape - the tranny fluid seems pretty good to, but the oil is black - way past the burnt stage - completely black - but no sign of coolant or milky stuff in the oil.
Inside the oil cap it looked really bad
Last - the car would not start - just made the clicking noise.

To give you an idea of what I am looking into - when I popped the hood everything looked nice and clean Except that the plastic cover over the spark plugs had melted to the head itself - thats how hot the engine got.

So basically what is the chance of survival of this engine - if any at all ?

How bad can damage get from overheating - is it possible to be unrepairable ?
The most I am willing to do it the head gasket - what else could have been damaged and is there any way to tell ?

P.s. why would I go after something like this - its less the 4 miles from me and I can get it for about $300 oh and it would be a summer project this is one of the last things I havent done yet - this and the tranny - I am familiar and have worked on almost everything else on my 850 and s70 T%'s

thanks for the help guys
0

[vegasjetskier]

Hi I am looking into buying a 2000 s40 1.9T with 171k that overheated and probably has a blown head gasket. from what I could tell, the car ran out of coolant and over heated. The owner said he didnt drive long once it over heated he was going through a tunnel when it over heated and when he got out he pulled over and had it towed.

I went to look at the car - it is over in very very nice shape - the tranny fluid seems pretty good to, but the oil is black - way past the burnt stage - completely black - but no sign of coolant or milky stuff in the oil.
Inside the oil cap it looked really bad
Last - the car would not start - just made the clicking noise.

To give you an idea of what I am looking into - when I popped the hood everything looked nice and clean Except that the plastic cover over the spark plugs had melted to the head itself - thats how hot the engine got.

So basically what is the chance of survival of this engine - if any at all ?

How bad can damage get from overheating - is it possible to be unrepairable ?
The most I am willing to do it the head gasket - what else could have been damaged and is there any way to tell ?

P.s. why would I go after something like this - its less the 4 miles from me and I can get it for about $300 oh and it would be a summer project this is one of the last things I havent done yet - this and the tranny - I am familiar and have worked on almost everything else on my 850 and s70 T%'s

thanks for the help guys
0

It could be so bad that you need an entirely different engine. It might be rebuildable, but you won't know until you tear into it. If I bought it I would find the source of the coolant leak, fix that, refill with new coolant and try to start it. Go from there depending on how it acts. Maybe you need new rings, a hone job, valves, main or rod bearings; there's no real way to tell just by looking.