I'm pretty concerned about how sound that approach would be. I'm afraid about what type of damage all the heat caused to the lower end, the sleeves, and even the trans. As an indicator of the temperature, the knock sensors are a little melted telling me it got near or beyond 500 deg F. I'm sure the bottom end is roached unless these are some really stout little motors.

It cost me $400 to get it into my shop and be able to inspect it.. I should be able to recover that. Question I have is do I go ahead and repair it or not? If I commit I want to end up with a solid motor..suggestions? Should I be concerned about the trans? Now is my chance to walk away.

 

I read your post again.
OK so the owner ran it out of gas.

The fuel pump needs gas to cool itself off.

When you run a fuel pump out of gas - in the tank - it may have seized
or burned out the fuel pump.

You can pull the fuel pump out of the tank - from the back of the rover in the cargo bay.

You can buy the whole assembly and just drop it back into the fuel tank.

Or you can replace the fuel pump on the assy (I would not do this) unless you are very confident.

And I bet it will then start.

At 153,000 miles - this is certainly in the range where the fuel pump could go out.

As the owner said it never re started when it ran out of gas - this means -
he probably runs it low - a lot.

And he may not have enough $ to maintain it properly as he could not afford to fill it periodically.

Or just hates putting gas into it.
I will run mine down to the bottom at times for that very reason.