So long story short, mate gives me a ring, daughters car made a chunk chunk noise while on freeway, engine smelt like oil, made a rattle and died.
Got said mate to get it towed to mine, i'll see if I can sort it while he's away FIFO. Daughter drops it off, explains what happens. While it's getting released off the trailer, its dropping oil like a land rover all over the floor.
Pop bonnet, radiator empty, overflow full, pull dipstick, oil smells of popcorn. Pull plugs, every ones covered in coolant, tips are pure white. Have a look under, bulk oil pooling from the rear main, not sure where the rest of the oil was from, but all the rubbers for the plugs were melted, the timing cover had melted. Put it in neutral, Tried to turn it over with a breaker bar, it's completely seized, informed dad and he sourced her another motor.
As I started pulling the old one out, I tore off the intake etc as there was oil right down to the airbox all over the filter.
Here's some pics.



while getting it stripped down even more, noticed a lot of corrosion/ build up all through the throttle body, intake manifold, the whole thermostat was clogged, and none of the sensors were touching water.


So stripped the engine out of the bay, got him to basically order enough shit to completely spruce up the other motor he got, a new rad, hoses usual consumables.
after a decent bath, complete strip down, the intake side is now pretty good.

We pulled the new motor down, gave the block and head a good clean, checked some specs, all looks hunky dory, threw a new head gasket, water pump, timing belt, thermostat, plugs, idler, front and cam seals at it while it was all apart.


now just got to time it up, throw the rest of the ancillaries on, and put it back in the car when he gets back on his next rnr.

It's been good playing with little g16bs again.
Oh, the cause of the failure, the heater return hose on the back of the head split to the heater core. All the hoses were despairingly perished, when she got sold the car she got the usual story of a little old lady owning it, and a mechanic in the town next to us always looked after the car for her.
Pete.