I am wondering whether to even bother looking at this one. (Discussions have only been over the phone as yet) Owner reports that car came to a halt amid clouds of smoke/vapour. Recovery suggested head gasket issues. My questioning established that the engine stopped on its own rather than being switched off by owner!

My question is fairly streightforward. How vulnerable are these alfa engines to Block/piston damage as a result of overheating? If they are vulnerable I am going to suggest an exchange engine (which is out of my area of operations) I suspect that even a "simple" head gasket replacement is likly to be pretty expensive and not really worth the risk if there is a liklyhoood of further hidden problems.