Well apparently the car somehow did ingest water.. there was ( from what I"ve been told ) 2.5L or so of water in the oil pan ( which meant the tranny must've ingested water too and a tranny flush would be done before starting the car along with the fuel tank as that would probably ingested water too ). Took the spark plugs out and only one of them had rust ( which meant only 1 cylinder had water, but how much I don't know as another mechanic took a look at that ). They've poured Coke down the cylinders yesterday to let it eat away at the rust and **** and will try to flush it out later today so I don't know how bad it is till later. The shop where the body was done was a real *****. Missing an "ABS" center wheel cap, they broke my other mirror ( passenger side ), missing front fender moulding ( right before the driver side door ). The White was WAY off !!! on the new parts. My driver side headlights and fog light bulbs. Those ****** also stole my Bose stereo, my tools from the trunk and all my cleaning and car maintainance supply in the trunk. I say it'* an inside job cause I don't see no damage to the key ring on the door, and no crook would be nice enough to lock the doors behind them ( and leave $15 I had sittin in the center console there ).. and the list goes on. I thought about going after them for the damages but since I didn't pay storage for my car there, the legal loophole says they're not liable for it and no proof it was them.
Needless to say I won't be recommending them to anyone.. I will worry about all that later on, right now its just the engine/tranny and gettin the car back on the road that I"m more concern with. They were able to turn the engine over when it first got brought into the new shop about 1/3 turn from what I can see so at least it'* not rusted together.. as for the connecting rod and such, guess there'* no way of checkin till they get the engine fired up ( minus strippin the whole engine apart to see )

Good luck, Drifter. Keep us updated. I'd love to see this back on the road.

If there were water in the cylinders, taking out the plugs and turning the engine over would flush a lot of that out. Did they use actual Coke? There are specific fluids for that that don't have the extra contaminants of Coke.

Thanx all.. yea they actually used coke.. and they said they're able to turn the engine fully now ( by hand ).. will see what happens. AS for the connecting rod and such.. I don't know.. they told me that MOST LIKELY it may not be affected since water is heavier then oil and would be at the bottom of the pan and push the oil up higher to cover everything else.. but like you said.. will have to wait and see.. hopefully it'* all minor and doesn't get costly.. how much would another L67 engine cost ( ball park figure? ) out of curiousity?

ok.. just hear car has ignition and will turn over, but has low compression on at least 1 of the cylinder ( they think it maybe one fo the valves rusted out, but can't confirm at the moment as they haven't gotten that far.. how much would valve job cost?? and or piston rings and such?? ) .. how low I don't know.. but will get all the info ASAP.. JR as to what you said above.. how would I know without tearing the engine apart and or symptoms that would show that??

Drifter, have them do a wet and dry compression check. I'm willing to bet the wet test will read higher, indicating a ring problem, rather than a valve problem. And get us some compression numbers for comparison.

Well.. Tamara'* dad is gracious enough to be concerned and lookin after my car and lettin me know whats going on ( as it'* to a mechanic near them and trusted.. after my last encounter I trust shops as much as politicians, lawyers, and meteorologist ). I haven't had a chance to talk to him as my cellie is at Tamaras.. but from what I"ve gathered.. he stuck around for 3 of the 6 cylinders compression check. 2 of the cylinders were reading 160 and the other 1 reading 60 ( don't know which measurement scale they using ). I don't know which cylinder it was and all. Funny thing was Tamara'* dad was askin about those camera thingies even before we brought it into the shop to have a look at. Thanx for all the encouraging words.. I hope it'* not a new engine/tranny needed...

Worse case scenario Jim'* Northstar will suddenly dissappear ( jokes.. no dumb crook would state what they're about to steal and have it lead back to them ) and I have a L67 I can tinker with ( bore out, mod, and something to learn on without having to worryabout driveability of the car then.. tryin to be optimistic on both fronts.

I am happy to announce that the car is now running. And moving. Tomorrow everything will be flushed out again, and there is apparently a noisy bearing in the front somewhere. :?

Thank-you, all non-believers! :P

What was the final story on the compression?

I've got the same gut feeling. Go easy on it for awhile.