My 2001 S60's radiator cracked when I accidentally hit the curb. My radiator was leaking so I put one of those radiator sealers in just to get by until my new radiator gets in. My bf decides to drive it on the freeway and it overheated. When he pulled over he didn't wait for the engine to cool down and added coolant and added 2 qtz of oil and he turned of the fans to cool down the engine. After a while we attempted to start the car, it wouldn't stay on and there was white smoke coming out of the exhaust. Now, the car won't start at all. I just got the battery charged so will try to start again.

What do you think could have been damaged?

I'm planning on putting in a new radiator, changing the coils and spark plugs an an oil change.

 

Since you overheated it and now have white smoke out the exhaust I would check to see if you have a blown headgasket or cracked head before wasting money on the other stuff. Sometimes when the headgasket goes you will get heavy bubbling in the expansion tank(where you ad coolant) when the engine is cranked or run. Good luck.

 

check both your oil and your coolant to see if they are a milky color, that one way to tell if the head gasket is blown but not fool proof. you still will need to do a compression check on the engine cylinders (easy to do just rent the tool from autozone) either way if it were my car ide get a new radiator, flush the engine and coolant system and replace all the main gaskets. it wont be "cheap" but there is a reason why we always warn against "quick fixes" never so quick in the end...

 

Why did he add two quarts of oil? The car overheating would not have made it low on oil... Also he may have warped something when adding a cold liquid to a hot engine, especially when it wasn't running.

 

Thank you Nichals. Will have to check those tonight. I think the best way to go about it is to change it all. I got a new radiator coming in soon, I'll see how it goes.

Thank you all for your input!