My son has a 2002 LS 430 and drove it with no coolant. His description to me was " It made pronounced short bust of a knocking noise and the it stalled. When I retrieved the car this is what I found. (1) The car would turn over but not start. (2) I checked compression in three cylinders and they showed no compression. (3) While trying to check the fourth cylinder, the engine turned over about two revolutions and locked up. (4) I drained the oil and found no discernible metal particles. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation?

 

Well, first and foremost, welcome to the club! Albeit under not so good conditions. You may want to repost this question in the General 3rd Gen section, as opposed to the "Build Threads" section. This area doesn't seem to get looked at very often..

I'll go out on a limb and say you've cooked the engine. It's possible you can pull the heads and find the pistons have welded themselves into the cylinders, or at the very least, the head gaskets are no longer sealing the area between the head and the block because of warpage.
Considering it won't turn over, that tells me there's internal damage to the engine. So, depending on the condition of the engine, it may be easier to just part out the car, as opposed to investing in a used engine. It may not be worth the investment. Only you can determine that. These engines are almost bullet proof, but they are not human proof...

 

Let us know what you choose to do. Would be interested in seeing a motor replacement in one of these. What was the mileage on the current one?

 

I am in the process of an engine replacement. To see the saga unfold, go to LS-3rd Gen, Won't start