Usually it takes a bit more heat to kill these heads, luckily she knew to pull over and let it cool....If she just said hell and drove home, I would say the head is bad....but if it ran out of coolant do to the leak....It can be a possibility...

I am sure you know this but, blow the radiator out....use a high pressure nozzle and fire it threw the radiator from the fan out towards the front of the car...If there is ac condenser....and fan....stuff can build up between all them....wouldn't believe the crap that gets stuck in the radiator....mine on my euro looked clean and I have sprayed it out...but when I removed it and tapped it on the truck...enough small stones fell out to use in a betta bowl lol

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The prolem their is that if their was no Coolant pulling over and letting it Cool down and driving again could still kill the Engine.
I think a big help was likely that the Oil Cooler is seperate from the Radiator.

My instructions to my wife were to pull over and not move the Car and call me and or the Auto Club. But, she had an appointment to pick up paperwork for a job.
Those instructions came after she ruined My Van Engine in the same manner. Ruined the Crank, a Rod and slighlty scoured up the Cylinders on it. Compressed all of the Hydraulic Valve Lifters and ruined the Camshaft bearings.Had to do a partial rebuild but the whole engine had to come out of the Van.

On the Van the Oil Cooler was built into the Radiator and the Oil was clealy fried. Apparetly there was still enough Coolant to circulate through the Block but not much in the Radiator to cool the Oil. So things that were lubed by the Oil took a hit and the Heads were not even warped beyond reuse.

My Wife also never told me about the Rod knock. I did not find out till I got in and started to drive.
I had not had to rebuild an Engine since about 1992. Since that time my mental and physical powers have suffered making the job several times more difficult. In short I did not enjoy it at all.
When I worked on the Van I was too tired to do the other things I was supposed to do so all that piled up on me to.

Also not having the Van kept us from moving cheaply into the other House we are supopsed to be moved into. Fortunately I own the House I am in and the House I we are supposed to move into.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel