Hydrolocked motor, good for parts?

[SmoothCriminal]

This is for the resident guru's here. I'm thinking of picking up a junked 92 VH45DE. From the papers this motor hydrolocked last year when the owner insisted on driving the car through kneehigh water. It's got 95k on the dial and I'm sure it's got a warped bottom-end but again this motor is free with all accessories. Because the car went through a flooded area, I'm worried it's drawn in large amounts of water and there may be severe damage to the pistons, rods and cylinder walls?

Anyone have any experiences with hydrostatic locks on these motors and if it's worth opening up? Interestingly enough, there's a Q, also a 92, that has a damaged valvetrain because the chain guides slipped and valves are jammed. What I'm aiming to do is transfer the working parts on the hydro'd motor to the motor with the damaged heads and build a running Q. You may ask why go through the hassle but again the motor is absolutely free as is the vehicle- my brother-in-law works for a salvage yard.

[DAEDALUS]

It'll be a lot of work, but the price is right. What are the odds the hydrolocked engine doesn't have any valvetrain damage and that the failed-guides engine doesn't have any lower-end damage?

[PalmerWMD]

Maybe Injectors are still good?

Fred..

[elwesso]

If nothing less, it would be a great learning experience to tear that apart... plus you could use the plenum and TB and maybe work on a supercharger for the Q......

If the engine is free and you have the space to do it, Id do it... If the engine was close to me Id pick it up and rip it apart just for something to do!!!!

[SmoothCriminal]

I've already examined the motor with the damaged guides and valves. The bottom-end looks to be in good shape and the engine turns fine but the headwork is absolutely wrecked, it looks as though some of the valves are practically embedded into the cylinder-head, some are badly bent. Obviously the chain's snapped as well. I'm just worried that a hydro'd motor would have the same (catastrophic) symptoms ie bent valves, bottom-end but the mileage is much less. I'll probably just try to salvage what I can - cams, cs & other sensors, ignition coils and ignitors and turbine sensor, transmission.

I've already started freshening up the bottom end. Pulled off the oil pan and cleaned it with industrial strength solvents. The one bright spot (no pun intended) is that the owner used synth and changed it at regular intervals because it looks spotless for a car this age. Scrubbed out the plenum with some shop towels and liberal amounts of industrial strenght car cleaner spray. The transmission on the other hyrdo'd engine will be sent in for rebuilding this week.

I've got a tip on another Q motor in the area that I'll scope out on Monday. At the least I'll pull of the heads as I was told the car was a snow victim, motor runs fine. I must say though, I crater to the "street rod" and "import tweaker" crowd but this engine is a damn fine specimen of meticulous engineering (besides the cg faux pas). It's a damn shame to see these metal behemoths succumb to owner negligence. Anyway I'm looking forward to rescuing this one from the crusher and commissioning her for use as a damn fine family car.