Lacabrera and Racer - the rest of the thread details the discovery of the carnage, and the subsequent removal of the block from the vehicle. It has now gotten a full engine replacement and it is running great again.

I haven't had a chance to try tearing down that block (maybe this weekend?) but right now, my suspicion is that the dealership monkeys may have unloaded a significant amount of a can of ether into the intake, and that caused the engine to "run" but with the buggered timing it wasn't correct OR controllable... And then the valve dropped. And that valve took out valve #2. And valve #1 and #2 took out valve #3... By this point, the banging had to be quite severe, and the results are shown in the pictures - total devastation. I don't know yet why the piston is locked in place, but I suspect it may be a bent rocker because one of the valves was jammed edge-up into the top of the piston, and that wouldn't have been well received by the rod and piston crown as it was moving upwards. Something had to give somewhere.

What amazes me is the complete dishonesty of the dealership, in that they took in an engine that was able to rotate and (most likely) just had a bad timing job and needed rockers... And they managed to do *something* horrific to it that has now completely trashed that engine to a point where it was seized in place. That is an amazing lack of skill from so-called "trained and certified" mechanics. Then, they just hand the vehicle back and say that they can't offer any help without a guaranteed minimum $3000 labor bill for "diagnostics" for them to tear it down and put it back together again, NO MATTER WHAT would be discovered. This is abuse of the customer, of the first degree.

With behavior like this, I wouldn't suggest that anyone bring ANY vehicle to a dealership unless they were forced at gunpoint to do so. You have no way to know what they are about to do to your car and your wallet.