Flooded engine - Insurance; what should I expect?

[KeaE30]

So I flooded my engine. It's destroyed.
Luckily, I am a volunteer fire fighter, and because I was responding to a call, the fire house's insurance company is going to take car of it.
I got the damage estimate; $2500 for a used engine and labor.
What should I should i expect? Is the insurance company going to total the car and give me $800, or are they going to repair my car?
NADA says the low retail is $3000, but the few stories I read online don't give me hope. I really want my E30 back and all this waiting to here back from the insurance company is driving me crazy.
If anyone has any input, I would love to hear it.
-Matt

[Pantless Spency]

take the 2500 and buy an s52 and giggle because they paid for your swap.

[Kershaw]

flooded engine? pull the spark plugs out and crank the engine. put the spark plugs back in and drive away.

$2500? wtf.

[KeaE30]

Already did that. No compression in cylinder 1, and less 100psi in the other 5. I have bent valves, probably a bent rod, and god knows what else. Trust me, with $2500 for me to spend, I could get another M20, and have money left over, but the insurance company needs an estimate from a shop that is certified and a whole bunch of other nonsense. So, I think I'm screwed.

[Pantless Spency]

your in new jersey. you can have someone write whatever you want as a value to the insurance. haha.

[Raxe]

How did you bend your valves by flooding your engine? O_o

[Kershaw]

dump 2 gallons of water into the intake while running?

[Raxe]

dump 2 gallons of water into the intake while running?

Hydrolocking?

[Kershaw]

i figured that's what he meant. since it's pretty hard to do any damage flooding the motor with gasoline....

[325ix]

Oooh. You mean flooded as in water. Everyone thinks you mean flooded as in the typical automotive sense, ie too much fuel.

[Kershaw]

maybe he used a fire hose connected to his throttle body.

[OnMy2ndE30]

Hydro-locking the engine is something that happens when a vehicle drives through high water. The water gets high enough that the water, instead of air, is sucked into the intake. As everyone knows, liquid will not compress like a gas. When the water enters the cylinder and the valves are closed on the compression stroke, the water has no where to go and it won't compress. This bends rods and locks the engine up. Hence engine replacement or rebuild.

[NickiX]

Yeah hydro locking is not a fun experience for people. I've seen a couple X3s that people thought were amphibious. That sucks that happened to your car. Hope you can get something worked out to get it back on the road.

[KeaE30]

Yeah, I guess I left out a valuable piece of information. The engine hydrolocked. It's screwed. Hopefully I'll hear back from them tomorrow.

[slammin.e28]

I hydro'd an old Nissan hardbody 4x4 once while rednecking it up after school one week. Great learning experience.

Estimate from a shop probably would come out to around $2500. We do Volvos because Volvo drivers would prefer to swap engines every 150k than change the oil every 3k miles. They're usually around $3k including seals, labor, engine, etc.