Nissan Repair: engine, nissan maxima, water contamination

Question
my 02 nissan maxima died on me with 132k miles.  drained oil and see a grey mud like substance in it.  I'm told it could be debree from the CAT

Answer
Robert,

If there is grey mud like stuff in the oil it is probably water contamination.  That would probably be a blown headgasket.  Remove all the sparkplugs and do a compression test and email me back.  If the engine was hydraulically locked you probably bent a rod or two.  This means, that if you have the plugs out and turn the engine over and water spits out some of the sparkplug holes you are looking at an engine rebuild.  If not, do the compression test on each hole and write them down.  There should be no more than ten percent difference between the highest reading hole and the lowest.  You will probably find that two, adjoining, holes are close to the same and much lower than the rest.  This is where the headgasket will be blown.  Check it out and email me back.