Greetings fellow Mafia members--so recently I posted regarding a sudden degradation of engine performance. It began right after accelerating to get onto the highway. Firm yes, but not redlined by any means (car is an auto). Cylinder 1 showed no compression, wet or dry. The mechanic believes I bent a valve while accelerating. He's thinking replacing the engine may be a better route than pulling the head and doing a valve job (he cited issues with possibly stripping threads)

I thought this seemed strange. How would an acceleration randomly bend a valve? Engine has 101,xxx miles on it.

The mechanic did find traces of "dark dusk" that he said indicated a failing cooling system, and thought that it could have been overheated sometime in the past, weakening something.

I do have a local friend who has a totaled ZHP with a good engine--102,xxx miles on it and I think he's asking a good price for it.

My question is this--what would the next best step? I don't have any experience in this area. Is replacing an engine the norm in this situation? Would I get anything for the old engine? Should I sell/part out the car instead?