Wife drove for 1 day, Overheated (shut off on her), now won't start and no odometer. Fluids were good that morning before I left for work. Was no coolant or oil when got to her on side of the road.

 

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your car troubles. If I may, can I pester you for more details?

You said there was no coolant or oil. Please oh please tell me that's an autocorrect error and there were no coolant or oil puddles under the car. If correct as written, and the crankcase had no oil and all coolant was gone, that's very bad.

What exactly happened when the engine overheated? Was it just the gauge reading high? Any knocking noises? Rough running? Clouds of steam or smoke?

Please define "Won't start". When you turn the key to the start position, does the starter do anything? Does the crankshaft spin at normal speed but the engine won't run? Does the starter sound like it's binding and the cranking speed is slow or erratic? Or does nothing happen at all, like the starter is never energized?

I'm perplexed why the odometer went dead. Was the battery run down trying to restart?

 

Yes give a few more details!

You have the 4.0L Engine.
Have the timing tensioners been changed? You may have had them break if not changed?
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You read it correctly. When I got to her, no oil reading on stick, no coolant. Charged battery and have odo now. Cranks slower than normal. Coolant res is flexing so I know head gasket, but won't even try to fire. I don't know much else on details due to not being there and wife knowing nothing about cars other than where the fuel and key go.

 

Yes, I've replaced tensioners and guides with upgrading them from plastic

 

Wondering if there is a safety keeping it from firing?

 

Without oil & coolant it's scary. I wouldn't even try to start it.

 

+1 not looking or sounding good at all

 

I'm confused where all the oil went. Any chance you threw a rod and punched a hole in the pan?

Or maybe the crankcase filled with coolant? That would severely dilute the oil and not readily show on the dipstick.

 

No Coolant?
If all that's blown out there must be a trace somewhere in the engine bay, you can't just lose all 10 litres of coolant and not show it somwhere.
Or do you mean no coolant in the expansion bottle?
Have you had the cap off the thermostat tower and squeezed the hoses to see if there is any sound or movement in there?

No oil?????!!!!!
Now that's a bad one.
Has it had an oil change lately?
Maybe the sump plug has come out? Catastrophic if it has.

Hopefully the wife's lack of car knowledge is making this sound worse than it is....................
Got a mate you can send round to have a look if you are away?

 

Any update on this one?
I'm curious

 

It takes some doing to get there.

If your wife is standard issue, she drove it oblivious with warning lights flashing and smoke pouring from the hood until the engine ceased and as a result your engine is 100% toast.

Losing all oil you have about 10 seconds before crankshaft bearings start disintegrating. Partial oil pressure you have a bit longer, so if you start dumping oil and notice that it is possible to roll to a stop and not cause damage. If you keep driving without oil - forget it, not even worth attempting to rebuild.

 

No reading on dipstick does not necessarily mean no oil at all. How much fresh oil did it take to achieve a normal reading.

 

+1 on that. I once had a mechanical fuel pump (on an old Jeep engine) spring an internal leak and fill the crankcase with fuel. This diluted the oil so severely, oil pressure was lost. When I checked the dipstick, it looked empty. What I was really seeing was a LOT of fuel. I finally realized something was up when I added several quarts of oil but nothing showed on the dipstick. It wasn't until I opened the drain plug that I realized what happened.

I mention all this because it would be very rare to lose all oil with no evidence. Could be the crankcase is full of coolant now. The only thing you'd see is a general wetness on the dipstick, which could easily mislead you. I'd pull the drain plug to be positive.