It's amazing that a $10 part failure can take out a $1700 engine but stuff happens.
Did it not have a temperature guage or at least a warning light? I've lost a couple of motors to overheating over the years. The only case where I was the driver when it happened I was also falling asleep and probably should not have been behind the wheel.
If I had been alert and paying attention I would have seen the temp increase and would have stopped to figure out why before the motor became junk.
A friend of mine has lost a couple motors to running out of oil. Those failures occurred in cars his kids drove and should have been caught by watching the gauges and checking the dip stick from time to time.
I suspect this is less a $10 part failure and more operator error. If the driver and owner blame the part and not the operator they risk it happening again.
