stevetatro:
There's no reason the crank would be ruined. It may even be safe to drive it home, if you put some heavy oil in it. I know a few people who've had to do this.
If the crank's okay, pop some new bearings in it and go!
If the oil pump is bad or a rod bearing has spun, how is thicker oil going to fix that? shrug It's silly to risk further damage to an engine which is already exhibiting a serious problem, potentially taking a repairable problem and damaging it beyond repair.
Every minute that car is run with the oil light and rod knock damage is being done. Unless the seller is a blood relative, I wouldn't recommend trusting his word about how long the engine has been run with the oil light and rod knock.
The risk of major damage here is too high IMHO to justify spending $1000 on a car with 250K! If the car had less than 150K, I might consider it, but with that many miles you might fix the engine just to have the tranny crap out on you a week later. Until you actually open up the motor and inspect the key components, you can't know what the extent of the damage is, and should assume the worst. You might be looking at spending another $1000+ just to get the car in roadworthy condition. For $2000, you could find a much better SHO.
There are many other SHO's out there with fewer miles, good maintenance histories, and perfectly running engines. In fact there's a blue ATX in MI listed for sale here in the forum with 90K miles that you could probably buy for around what this car would cost including repairs, etc.:
http://www.shoforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000054;p=1
IIWM, I would steer clear of this car for anything more than $500. What you do is up to you, but I think your money could be better spent.
