Good comments - thanks. One wish I have is to figure out salvagability before the engine comes out. The car is at a Subaru dealer and I assume they diagnosed the blown gasket through a compression or vacuum check. My thought is that any other condition that such checks could find would be masked by the blown gasket. Perhaps there is a way to scope the condition of the cylinder with a camera pushed through the spark plug hole? The only other indicators I have are from my daughter. When she realized the overheat condition, she stopped the car. After the water pump was replaced, she drove it a week before the gasket blew, and when it blew, it was obvious from the steam - but she thankfully didn’t allow the temp gauge to go high again. No roughness beforehand, no skipping, no hesitation, no burning smell, no oil leaks, and the car can still start and run. I like the thought that the short block is OK if the oil was still in place… I wouldn’t like a warped head, but that is better than say a cracked block.
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