5.7 hemi

In your own experience, over heating was probably not a factor. In many others it is. Just like timing chain related failures. In my neck of the woods I rarely saw those cause any catastrophic failure on a 5.7. I heard of it but never saw it, though I did see drivability issues from it. I find it interesting that vehicles in different geological locations have different frequencies and types of failures not necessarily relative to the geological and climatic differences between those locations. I certainly agree, the OP has a good foundation action to work with, that short block, provided nothing else got damaged. Its nice to not have to work around that MDS system on the early ones.