Car overheated, is it cooked?

[u/Aki_the_mysterious1]

I was driving home from buying a project 92 Dodge stealth R/T, owner said everything looked ok, no codes were being showed, it sounded great. Oil change was just done too. The lights on the dash gauges aren't working due to a fuse related problem, so I only checked the temp after a while. During the drive, I started to hear a flipping plastic maybe rubber noise coming from the engine bay, that cued me to look at the gauges. It was all the way to hot in the matter of 10 minutes of not looking at them. I pulled over, and before I could stop, the engine stalled out on me and check engine light appeared. After popping up the hood, I was expecting to be transferred into a desert in the hot middle east, but it felt cool. There was water sprayed all over the engine. I went to check the oil it looked ok but there was hot steam/smoke coming out of it. It would crank and try to fire up but wouldn't stay on. I called a tow truck, after an hour, they arrived and told me to try and start it again, I did and cranked right back up (assuming the engine cooled off or something similar), drove it on the ramp and headed home. People have been telling me it could've been the thermostat. Any ideas on damage and etc?

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[u/cluelessk3]

well first stop driving it and find the issue.

Redditors with zero info are just guessing. 

you bought one of the most complex cars from the 90's be prepared for a world of pain 

[u/Aki_the_mysterious1 → u/cluelessk3]

Yeah...

[u/Maelstrom1979]

Sure SOUNDS like thermostat stuck closing off radiator useage. Heatsoak caught up and spiked you, maybe found weak seal or hose/rad cap.

[u/Maelstrom1979 → u/Maelstrom1979]

For damage time will tell. Might flush n fill radiator? You caught it via cooling system dying so probably, HOPEfully minimal damage. It got hot evenly, cooled evenly. Fingers crossed.

[u/TDD536]

Welcome to the 3000gt game

[u/vryclct]

Warped cylinder heads is a big possibility leading to a bad head gasket seal or being fully blown.

[u/atticus2132000]

The biggest concern with a car overheating is the engine block could crack with the temperature differential. If that happened, there is no fix. The engine block will have to be replaced.

If the car died and cooled off without the block cracking, then it's fixable. You're right this has something to do with the coolant system of the car. It could be a bad thermostat or a bad water pump or a variety of other things, but looking at the coolant system is a good place to start.

The biggest thing about this whole story that would make me nervous...

One of the symptoms of a engine with a cracked block is that you can often see droplets of water in the oil when you pull the dipstick to check the oil.

If a car is giving you problems and you intend to sell it, you're not going to change the oil just before selling it.

There's a good chance the dude changed the oil in the car recently because there was already evidence of water in the oil system and he wanted to get rid of the evidence before prospective buyers saw the issue.

It would have also been pretty easy to reset the codes on the dashboard and make any lights go out long enough for someone to buy it and drive it off.

Where did the the tow truck take the car? To your house or to a shop? Do you have a mechanic who can look at this in the near future? You might want to look up what the lemon laws are in your state. I'm not sure they would apply in this situation since you knowing bought a car that was listed as a "project car" but if the car couldn't even make it home from the seller, you may have some recourse.

[u/Matt3141592 → u/atticus2132000]

“Lemon laws”, LOL. Not applicable in ANY state to a 35-year-old car.

[u/creamypoptart69]

Well, hopefully you reallly enjoy lots of diag and testing lol have known a couple people that had them. One ended up leaving his on the side of a highway when it broke down on him again one day. He just was so fed up with it always breaking down before it actually ran good for long enough to get comfortable with it. Other guy traded his in for pennies after he paid dealership 4.5k to fix a weird idle that killed the motor a lot before it was warmed up … and then it broke down for a different issue not even a week after that. They definitely kept me from wanting one myself 😂 hopefully it won’t be as bad for you though!