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How Many Engines have you Broke?
- Thread starter Bent77
- Start date
I'll start, totaling 7.
Best one being a 355" that lost the #6 exhaust valve @ 6800RPM.
End result was the deck separated from the block with the piston inside the water jacket and the valve seat 8" down the primary tube of the header
Best one being a 355" that lost the #6 exhaust valve @ 6800RPM.
End result was the deck separated from the block with the piston inside the water jacket and the valve seat 8" down the primary tube of the header
1 and I didn't even try.
2004 LQ4
Spun the cam bearings and it lost oil psi then took everything out.
2004 LQ4
Spun the cam bearings and it lost oil psi then took everything out.
quite a few boat motors.. that's our job, push the limits.. if it don't fail for us at WOT, it'll survive the owners cruising rpms..
personally, a few.. by far the best was my second car... 72 340 Duster with a 3spd manual, 8500 in second gear, dump the clutch, BOOM... a softball size hole in each side, 3 con rods in pieces.... drove it home a couple miles on 5 cylinders...
personally, a few.. by far the best was my second car... 72 340 Duster with a 3spd manual, 8500 in second gear, dump the clutch, BOOM... a softball size hole in each side, 3 con rods in pieces.... drove it home a couple miles on 5 cylinders...
put a rod through the side of the the block. 331 Caddy in a 54 Study pickup.
Too many to count while I raced circle track , I ran a claimer class so any one else could claim your engine once the main started , was 20 laps into 30 lap main in 2 nd place and started losing all oil pressure when I let off the throttle to go into corners had about 5 psi at 7000 rpm down the straightaway lasted 5 more laps when it blew it threw two rods through the block on each that went all the way through the crossmember / frame on my Monte Carlo one got lodged in lifter valley and cracked the intake, and broke the carb base only useable piece left was the air cleaner and the engine had been claimed so they had to pay me and pull the blown up engine they just bought while me and my buddies sat back killed a bottle of gentlemen jack and laughed.
Far as I can recall,I have only had two engines blow --one was in my '63 VW Beetle ,the #3 rod came thru the case right next to the oil cooler,after the exhaust valve dropped its head into the combustion chamber...it locked up tight,I put the clutch in and tried cranking it "clunk-clunk"--the starter couldn't turn it over...tried popping the clutch before it rolled to a stop in second gear,it just skidded the rear tires..DONE!...
My '79 C-10 "Bonanza" had its straight six lunch the #6 piston one day on the highway 15 or so miles from home...it started skipping and lost a lot of power,when I looked behind me,you could see only dense white smoke..I thought the head or head gasket went...
I turned off at the next exit and got back on the highway and prayed I'd get it home before it seized or tossed a rod...
It did make it home,but when I got off the highway it was making a fingernails on a chalkboard type screech,and it would barely propel the truck..
After I got it home,I pulled the head off it--you could see the top ring on the #6 piston,the top of it looked like it shattered ,and pieces had gotten munched up in the combustion chamber and scored the cylinder wall up pretty bad--I probably could have saved it,but decided the bearings probably got wasted,so I opted to get a 305 off a friend and put that in it instead...
I've had the fiber cam gears strip all their teeth off on my '56 Chevy 3200 truck with a 235 straight six,and the '75 2WD Blazer I had with a 250 six did the same thing...I've come to hate "masonite" timing gears,nylon toothed cam sprockets,and timing belts...and "interference" engines...one of man's stupidest inventions..
My '79 C-10 "Bonanza" had its straight six lunch the #6 piston one day on the highway 15 or so miles from home...it started skipping and lost a lot of power,when I looked behind me,you could see only dense white smoke..I thought the head or head gasket went...
I turned off at the next exit and got back on the highway and prayed I'd get it home before it seized or tossed a rod...
It did make it home,but when I got off the highway it was making a fingernails on a chalkboard type screech,and it would barely propel the truck..
After I got it home,I pulled the head off it--you could see the top ring on the #6 piston,the top of it looked like it shattered ,and pieces had gotten munched up in the combustion chamber and scored the cylinder wall up pretty bad--I probably could have saved it,but decided the bearings probably got wasted,so I opted to get a 305 off a friend and put that in it instead...
I've had the fiber cam gears strip all their teeth off on my '56 Chevy 3200 truck with a 235 straight six,and the '75 2WD Blazer I had with a 250 six did the same thing...I've come to hate "masonite" timing gears,nylon toothed cam sprockets,and timing belts...and "interference" engines...one of man's stupidest inventions..
This is awesome. Sucks to be the guy that claimed it.
I've never completely destroyed an engine. Had several lose oil pressure at high rpms, ended with spun bearings, but I always shut them down before major damage occurs.
I did have a 305 in a crawler that I tried to kill before I swapped it out. Last trip it out it was only running on 5 or 6 cylinders, used 80/90 so it would have oil pressure, basically hit every obstacle full throttle with it rattling, hammering, and overheating. Still ran when I pulled it out.
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Growing up Dad and I bought and sold used cars and did a lot of motor swaps which meant I drove a different car every month or 2. We would buy cars out of fields or that had been given up on work on them some drive them and sell them. Well I had no mercy on these cars and hammered the crap out of neglected vehicles with well over 100,000 miles on them and every so often BOOM. Oops sorry dad. I will pull the engine out of one of the others and put in this one.
I also played with racing fuels, hot plugs, messing with carbs and exhaust, headers etc. Any voodoo magic I heard of and it cost a few motors.
Since I have growed up some, I now only smoke a motor every 10 years or so. Dukes of hazzard had nothing on me for ripping up country roads. We usually had 5 or more vehicles around we were tinkering with so friends would come over and we would go tear up the field roads. Good times out in the sticks of No. Dak.
Worst pop of a motor was a 389 tri power that tried to shoot pistons out of the block. A little too much alcohol in the fuel and hot plugs and a 2 speed power glide. Just a few too many RPM's When it blew I wasn't sure if I wasn't going to end up sliding down the road on the front seat. Scared the crap out of me.
I also played with racing fuels, hot plugs, messing with carbs and exhaust, headers etc. Any voodoo magic I heard of and it cost a few motors.
Since I have growed up some, I now only smoke a motor every 10 years or so. Dukes of hazzard had nothing on me for ripping up country roads. We usually had 5 or more vehicles around we were tinkering with so friends would come over and we would go tear up the field roads. Good times out in the sticks of No. Dak.
Worst pop of a motor was a 389 tri power that tried to shoot pistons out of the block. A little too much alcohol in the fuel and hot plugs and a 2 speed power glide. Just a few too many RPM's When it blew I wasn't sure if I wasn't going to end up sliding down the road on the front seat. Scared the crap out of me.
wetoolowdingbangow
1/2 ton status
Hmm. I think 3.
The one that pissed me off the most was when the ceramic off a spark plug fell into a 4.3l v6 I had in a truck. It happened on the freeway. I was still in highschool so I barely had any money. I got a new piston and had the head rebuilt...slapped it together and dropped a transmission the week after that. Lol. I spent most of my time awake working on that thing. Never again would I own an obs chevy.
The one that pissed me off the most was when the ceramic off a spark plug fell into a 4.3l v6 I had in a truck. It happened on the freeway. I was still in highschool so I barely had any money. I got a new piston and had the head rebuilt...slapped it together and dropped a transmission the week after that. Lol. I spent most of my time awake working on that thing. Never again would I own an obs chevy.
It's amazing how some motors just wont die,they'll run forvever but poorly,even if you try to blow it up on puropse,or just dont care if it does..
..
We had a '6o or so Chevy C-60 truck at the junkyard,that had a 235 or 261 straight six in it,it had a long flat bed,and a home made crane setup on the rear of it that was operated by a PTO winch mounted near the cab end of the bed..it looked like another 2 ton truck's frame was used to build the "boom" part.
It was scrapped because evidently the radiator leaked and they kept adding plain water,no anti-freeze,and the engine block split wide open right near the center,under the head,a good 1/2" wide split!--you could see the piston in that cylinder sliding up and down!..yet it would run pretty decent a good 20 minutes before it started screching and would slow down like it was binding up...
To get it started from a cold start,we had to pour about a cup of oil down the carb,while cranking it,then chase that with a shot of gas..once it fired up and burned the oil off,it actually ran pretty well,on 5 cylinders..the split one pumped air like a compressor,sounded like an engine with one spark plug left out..
We just had the valve cover lying on the head with no bolts for the duration we used it too..the bolts all were busted off in the head..we tied a cinder block on top of it to keep it from bouncing off!..
We used that truck often to load cut up cars,engines,and other heavy things into customers trucks,or to load up the ramp truck with cars to be squashed at another location...
I was always amazed that thing always re-started after you let it cool down,it was good for another 20 minutes or so,which was about as long as we needed it to use,so we never bothered trying to put some other engine it it!..we asked the boss many times "-Can we put this engine & trans in it",and he'd say "NO!--if its still running,just USE it!"..
..We had a '6o or so Chevy C-60 truck at the junkyard,that had a 235 or 261 straight six in it,it had a long flat bed,and a home made crane setup on the rear of it that was operated by a PTO winch mounted near the cab end of the bed..it looked like another 2 ton truck's frame was used to build the "boom" part.
It was scrapped because evidently the radiator leaked and they kept adding plain water,no anti-freeze,and the engine block split wide open right near the center,under the head,a good 1/2" wide split!--you could see the piston in that cylinder sliding up and down!..yet it would run pretty decent a good 20 minutes before it started screching and would slow down like it was binding up...
To get it started from a cold start,we had to pour about a cup of oil down the carb,while cranking it,then chase that with a shot of gas..once it fired up and burned the oil off,it actually ran pretty well,on 5 cylinders..the split one pumped air like a compressor,sounded like an engine with one spark plug left out..
We just had the valve cover lying on the head with no bolts for the duration we used it too..the bolts all were busted off in the head..we tied a cinder block on top of it to keep it from bouncing off!..
We used that truck often to load cut up cars,engines,and other heavy things into customers trucks,or to load up the ramp truck with cars to be squashed at another location...
I was always amazed that thing always re-started after you let it cool down,it was good for another 20 minutes or so,which was about as long as we needed it to use,so we never bothered trying to put some other engine it it!..we asked the boss many times "-Can we put this engine & trans in it",and he'd say "NO!--if its still running,just USE it!"..
Ive broke at least 3 running motors but if you add in dirtbikes its more then 3.
I have broken a lot of engines. In highschool, I'm fairly certain I never actually changed the oil in my truck once because I was constantly replacing the engine before it was oil change time lol!
My best was a 305 I blew up in my old 89 C1500. I sent a rod through the side of the block. It stopped dead in it's tracks! I've blown headgaskets and hydrolocked a couple 350s. Lots of spun main or rod bearings which didn't fail catastrophically. The most expensive engine was the original LB7 Duramax I put into Penny. She suffered massive internal corrosion due to bad coolant which the PO didn't change and it leaked from everywhere. I had to replace the entire engine.
I had a 6.5L break the crank once. That thing kept running despite loosing a couple rear cylinders. Did a pile of damage to the valvetrain after the rear couple cylinders stopped but the valves did not. I drove that one home.
My best was a 305 I blew up in my old 89 C1500. I sent a rod through the side of the block. It stopped dead in it's tracks! I've blown headgaskets and hydrolocked a couple 350s. Lots of spun main or rod bearings which didn't fail catastrophically. The most expensive engine was the original LB7 Duramax I put into Penny. She suffered massive internal corrosion due to bad coolant which the PO didn't change and it leaked from everywhere. I had to replace the entire engine.
I had a 6.5L break the crank once. That thing kept running despite loosing a couple rear cylinders. Did a pile of damage to the valvetrain after the rear couple cylinders stopped but the valves did not. I drove that one home.
Took 2-3 305's off the road in my highschool days.
The last one I did was a Toyota Camry 2.2L
The last one I did was a Toyota Camry 2.2L
blew up the second Honda motor I built, made a poor decision to run over-sized manly valves with a set cams with too much duration. I'm pretty sure there was some interference and it dropped a Hershey kiss into #3 after a 1K miles or so of break in. That was an expensive lesson.
I killed the same Chrysler 2.2 3 times, but that's not exactly hard:
- Seal blew and it dumped all oil on the freeway. Felt like power just kept decreasing, then it started knocking, then the oil pressure light came on. Got another short block.
- Cracked a head cruising down the highway - started a giant steam show from the tailpipe. Replaced the head (OK, technically I'm not on the same motor anymore).
- Girlfriend flopped the car on it's side in a snowy ditch. Poured fluids back in and drove a few days - then it started tapping. Within 20 miles a con rod shot out and thumped the floor a couple times on the way out. Hauled to junkyard.
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not impressive but my 327 in my firstK5, had my dad start it once a week while I was in basic training and AIT, about a month after getting home I was hot rodding it around town and BANG BANG BANG.....
impressive but don't think it was me, I had an 84 Toyota 4x4 22R, engine ran fine but pulled it to build a little more power. pulled the valve train out, grabbed the cam with both hands, and I had one piece in each hand and a third piece still in the head, it broke in 2 places but was wedged together enough that I never new there was a problem. had to replace the head, the cam journals were all chewed up.
impressive but don't think it was me, I had an 84 Toyota 4x4 22R, engine ran fine but pulled it to build a little more power. pulled the valve train out, grabbed the cam with both hands, and I had one piece in each hand and a third piece still in the head, it broke in 2 places but was wedged together enough that I never new there was a problem. had to replace the head, the cam journals were all chewed up.
Burbdood 74
Giver of not a single damn...
I broke one in the middle of the desert on my way back from a party at 3am summer of 1993. I had an 86 K-10 with a 4.3 and I was apparently the first person to change the oil and when I added Slick 50, it knocked the crud into the pan and it blocked the oil pump screen.
I burned through 3 pistons, froze 7 valves and created an unholy mess. I just wish I had replaced it with a 350 instead of having the 4.3 rebuilt.
I burned through 3 pistons, froze 7 valves and created an unholy mess. I just wish I had replaced it with a 350 instead of having the 4.3 rebuilt.
.15 RC car engine (lost throttle control and screamed till it stopped)
454 boat engine lost oil at 60mph down the center of the lake, nothing was salvageable, cracked the block and piston shrapnel everywhere
454 boat engine lost oil at 60mph down the center of the lake, nothing was salvageable, cracked the block and piston shrapnel everywhere
