Ok i bought an 89 firebird hardtop for 500 bucks ran good when i looked at it kept good oil pressure and didnt overheat or nuthin, its a 305 tbi car with an auto tranny, the water pump, radiator and thermostat, have been replaced just by lookin at it, i was drivin it out to my dads to put a flywheel in it and i noticed it started gettin hot and the oil pressure dropped to 0, oh muh ***!!!, well i pulled over and left the fan on to try and cool it down, by now the reservoir it full of boiling and churnin coolant, when i felt it had time to recover i went back at it when i hit town the draincock blew out of the radiator, yes blew out, well i ran it a bit longer and gave up, mind you at 0 oil pressure the car made no noise other than the flywheel knocking, when i got it there the battery was dead from running the fan, it took and hour for the temp to read on the gauge again, i put a battery charger on it and it started right up and had decent oil pressuremanual gauge i put on showed 25 lbs pressure, 115k motor, factory gauge shows 30 lbs, i need some help im thinkin the thermostat stuck so i bought a failsafe one to go in it but why would she loose oil pressure like that unless the oil just got so hot, by the way my timing cover gasket was bubbling out of the seems lol from the heat, well any help would be appreciated sorry about the long post but i like to put it all out on the table

 

Overheating is an engine's worst nightmare. Metals expand when they get hot (pistons wedge against the cylinder bores, making it impossible to start the engine until they cool down themselves).

You were lucky she didn't seize up on you...