Got a sad story to tell. Last Sunday I got a set of brand new coil springs installed on my just bought 73 mav. previous owner had cut the original ones and it was to bouncy and low. Got done at about 3 p.m. and decided to take it on the road to test and see the diference with the new springs....... Car overheated on the highway and by the time I pulled over I had a really low end metal noise. The engine does not have 100 miles since the engine was rebuilt completely from the botom up. I dread to start it to find out that my engine is toasted. What would you guys do?????
When the engine overheats...the oil cooks and looses its lubricity and compression ability.First thing to suffer are the piston skirts...Drain the oil...watch it to make sure there is no coolant in it or metal shaveings.(use a magnet as stated by 408)Put fresh oil in it...PRIME the engine before trying to run it(spin the oil pump i mean) then run it and see what kind of noise it makes on initial start up.It may quiet down and be fine...it may make no noise at all...It shouldnt be noisey for more than 20 seconds heck 5 or 10 tops on a fresh engine.If it wont quiet down in the first 5 to 20 seconds.You have a problem(Sorry) Chances are it will be fine as long as you shut it down quickly enough and werent spinning alot of RPM's when you noticed it was hot.If all is good,find out what made it overheat and fix it.Good luck,hope it turns out fine for you.
