A rebuilt ford 302 had the valve locks installed wrong, and my girlfriend drove the car 1800 miles with a hole in the piston and a crack in the cylinder wall. She first called me to say it was 'ticking' and a few hours latercalled me to tell me it was overheating, and smoking but that she thought she could make it home.. She was pulling over every 50 miles, to add water to the radiator and a 2 day trip took 4 days. When she got home, the 'oil' pretty much filled the block and pretty much looked like crisco shortening. I found the valve stem in the bottom of the oil pan
I think the thick mix in the crank case had just enough oil in it to lubricate enough. The hole in the piston was about 3/4 inch in diameter and looked melted around the edge. The crack in the cylinder wall was more of a gouge. I assume that maybe the length of the valve was enough that it didn't completely fall into the cylinder- but kept getting driven up and down in the valve guide for some time as the first complaint was about a loud 'ticking' that may have been the piston hitting the loose valve. Eventually, the face of the valve must have worn away and the shortened valve fell the rest of the way into the cylinder and tore up the cylinder wall.
That whole (hole) episode left me wondering if the cooling system and oil system could actually be filled with the same fluid.. You might need a bigger radiator though
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