Long story short, my wife drove my 2000 Dodge Stratus 2.4 into a curb and busted the radiator. She drove it about 7 miles at 30-40 MPH until it lost power, started pinging, lost oil pressure and died. The next day, it cranks but has no compression and does not start. Did it blow the head gasket? What else could have been damaged? Should I put a $400 tested junkyard engine in or try to fix this one? I want to keep this car going. Thank you for your advice.

 

$400 for a used motor is significantly cheaper than rebuilding a severely damaged motor.

 

THIS. used motor FTW.

 

Ditto both the above. 94

 

what do you mean by "no compression". Was an actual compression test done and what were the resulting PSI readings on each cyl? A junkyard motor would likely be the easiest fix, but it very well could not be totally destroyed either. The 420A and similar 2.4 Mopar engines are actually decent engines and pretty strong. Typically just driving it for a few minutes over heated will not catastrophically kill it. Also, how hard was the curb hit. Are you sure the radiator is the only thing that was damaged?

 

lost oil pressure? lose that motor for another used one

 

is the dodgestratus a rare honda only available in certain markets? I've never heard of that model honda

 

Lmao

 

The curb was hit just hard enough that it damaged the radiator but nothing else. What is likely the reason that it lost compression? Someone said that the pistons and or rings are likely damaged or melted. Could that be true? Could the head gasket just be blown? Thank you for taking the time to read my post and answer my questions.