Hi,

Through my own stupidity I managed to severely overheat my OM617 that I swapped into my G-Wagen.

There was no heat coming from the heater, suggesting low coolant, and I thought I could get about 5km into town, but she blew up before I made it. The engine stopped running while I was cruising at highway speeds, its good I was in a remote area and there was plenty of space to stop as well as limited traffic.

I am relatively new to diesels so I'm wondering what approach to take; my options are find another engine to swap in and rebuild this one in parallel, or do a mini-overhaul and get this one running. A wrecker 617 can be had locally for $1500.

The engine turns over freely when I try to start it, but it doesn't seem to have any compression. While the engine doesn't seem to be seized, the throttle linkages are - I can't move them at all.

So my question is, what are the normal failure modes of this engine when overheated? I am guessing the head gasket blew, oil was everywhere. But what other items can I expect to go? Is it typical that I would crack the head or block due to an overheat? The engine got hot enough that there is now flash rust on the outside of the block...

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers,

Michael