When you do not change the engine oil, basically those special chemicals in the engine oil that resists heat, does cleaning, lubricating are all degraded or gone. No different to having cooking oil inside.

Modern engines are bad in this department. They are manufactured at high material tolerances that a little deviation can cause failure. For them its accuracy . For everyone means you have to follow service schedule. Else when it fails it will fail.

Cannot think the old way where little failure in engine will result in engine replacement. Almost no company uses cast iron for engine anymore. Everyone is aluminium. Lighter, but prone to fracture than iron.

The point is, the damage is not caused by mechanical failure or defect. It is caused by degraded engine oil that caused the engine not to lube properly and heat killed everything from pistons, cylinder walls, gaskets & warped the head.

This post has been edited by netmatrix: Jan 16 2018, 09:33 AM

Also was there coolant used in the first place? I doubt the car never came with coolant. And you know coolant raises the water boiling temp so bubbles will not form. If you use just water, those bubbles will accumulate air inside the system. And air is proven not to be a good heat transfer medium than water.