overheated engine
 

years ago my wife was cruisng in the vette when it overheated very badly before she was stopped by a trucker seeing steam coming out the exhaust
one piston was fried...the cylinder head got so hot it turned the head white and stayed white.
my question is... is this engine beyond rebuild it does turn over by hand...
id rather dispose of the engine as it is in my way of my other vettes....
im considering taking off covers and oil pan and saving these parts.
or is thiis engine a boat anchor or not.
thanks

The cylinder heads are probably junk most likely cracked, the short block MIGHT be o-k for a rebuild.

What year? Small block or big block? Engine anything special? If not, it will make a good mooring anchor for a sailboat.

Pull it apart and have a shop sonic check and magnaflux it...

Ill bet many of the "rebuild-able cores" out there are out there because someone ran them way to hot and fried something...

yup, have to take it apart and inspect,
so it comes down to a time thing and
think about what enhancements you want
if the bones of the motor check out,
can be real satisfying to put one together right.

time? buy a short block save the orig for a long enhanced build you want to have.
sorry for the death/

I'm going to take a wild stab at this and say that the damage was located on the right cylinder bank and in the areas of #2 & #4 cylinders. If that "guess" is on the money, I think I can tell you what likely happened.

If it's from a 72 and you decide to trash it, I'm interested...I would like to have a 72 block to someday build and put back in my 72.

Brian

I had a friend who left the drain plug out of his ski boat and it sank at the launch ramp while he was parking his truck.
He got it back on the trailer within minutes and brought it home.
The oil was milky gray and looked like it was blended with a mixer.
Very different than what you show in your photos.
We pulled the plugs spun the motor, dried everything out, changed the oil and filter , ran the motor with the boat hooked up to the hose, three times before the oil appeared normal, then ran it at the lake for about an hour.
Water will go through the rings so unless you are seeing evidence of water in the cylinders, you might not have water in your oil.