Some of you may have been following me in other posts but here's the short version of the story.

A friend of mine was driving on the freeway in a Volvo S70 when he had a total cooling system failure. Pretty much all of the coolant leaked out so fast that the gauge did not have time to show a warning. Then oil sprayed all over the firewall and he finally pulled over when smoke was pouring out from all under the hood.

The head gasket failed for sure and the guys at the machine shop are telling me the head is probably cracked and it is warped for sure. There might be cracking in the block or melting of the pistons as well.

Since the whole car is worth around 2-3 grand in the condition it is in it would be stupid to try to do a rebuild of the block (if possible) and mating a used rebuilt head to it for what would cost at least 30% of the value of the whole car.

So now I found a junked car with 80K miles that was run into a ditch and got the front end mangled. The lower control arms were ripped off of the chasis and there is a soda can sized hole in the oil pan. I asked the yard employees if they made the hole but no one is sure. They say on some cars they do that but on some they just drain the oil and throw away the plug so you reuse your old one. The odd thing is that the hole is like a chunk of the pan is gone. If it hit the ground you would expect a dent and tear in the metal but the area around the hole is flat plane. I can't figure out what happend. The break is right under the oil strainer.

They want $250 for it and do have a warnatee.

The engine swap is pretty easy on this car so maybe 4 hours of work and it will be in. I've already got everything but the mounts disconnected so I can go back and get it out in under an hour. I was going to buy it today but thought I should get more opinions on it. The car has sat since winter of 2008 so the inside is now bone dry.

I can't even find the head for under $375 in full service used parts places so the price for the whole engine is good. I'm almost sure the head is in good shape so if the lower end of the factory engine is okay I can mate it to that.

It's impossible to pull the pan on this car with the engine installed and the chasis bent up like it is so I can't check it that way.

What would you do?

The next cheapest engine that has been tested and is fully backed in this area is $950.

If I can take a 30mm socket and turn the crankshaft with a breaker bar should I take a chance and buy it?

 

Normally the pan can be pulled. Depends on how bad the subframe is bent.
I would pull the pan and check the rod bearings.

 

The spot under the oil pickup tube is the only place that isn't reinforced with ribs/baffles. So if it took a hit, that would be the likely place to break. But for $250 and warrantee it would be hard to pass up. You're going to spend that much on oil seals, water pump and timing belt (which most yards require for warrantee).

 

You also might want to check out the PCV system for any holes in the lines/joints.

 

Sounds like a good deal. You should be able to scoop up an oil pan for relatively cheap too. Like tech said, check the internals, and if they're bad, throw in some new bearing and rings and you'd have a nice engine to work off of. As for the PCV, if that comes with the engine, I wouldn't use. A whole PCV system is only a hundred bucks, I wouldn't trust an old used one.