You are going to find out why it's called the money shift.

 

most likely the valve are gonecase
gd luck with acquiring a 2.3l

 

Sounds like he has no compression, if the car won't turn over at all..I've been down this road with the X..it doesn't have anything to stop you from puttin the car into a lower gear past a certain engine speed. Time for a new engine..btw..if you check the plugs and one of the ground straps is bent in..that a really good indicator..

 

dropped at least one valve and locked up the engine. that would be my guess.
Top of 2nd gear back to 1st will put that engine around 15000 rpm.

 

natural selection

 

Wow that really sucks, keep us updated on what happened....

 

thats Mike@AWDs guess as well