How many engines have you exploded or hurt really bad????

[themechanic]

After reading all the posts above I don't feel so bad about my 440 in the Coronet now. It died of oil starvation due to the aftermarket pick-up tube rotation above the oil line.

 

[bandit67]

Just one, the original 327 in my 67 Camaro. Had steadied at 105 on the interstate way too early after fresh rebuild, easing up to 110 when the two rods kicked out thru the block, broke my new Sig Erson camshaft into four pieces, dang the bad luck. Nothing salvaged but intake and carb. As a mid teen, that one was what started my lifelong addiction that haunts me to this day....

 

[#41]

Surprisingly, only 2:

The 440 in my 69 Roadrunner broke a rod cap bolt and then the piston and rod flopped around inside the block for awhile until it seized. It pretty much wasted everything. It started knocking but I was a dumb kid of 20-ish and didn't shut it down fast enough. If I had only clutched it and turned off the key I might still have the car today. I could not afford to fix it at the time, so it got sold.

I demo-raced a 73 Fury with a 318 and as it turned out, it would turn the fastest lap if I left it in first gear the entire time (1/4 mile oval). The valves were floating about 30 feet from the corner. It finally went kerspattttt! (literal sound) when I came back the next night to run bump-to-pass. Both sides of the block were bulged out and every square inch of the engine compartment was covered in oil. I just closed the hood and gave the title to the junk man at the track.

Knock on wood.... no more.

 

[mbc0724]

I fused all the gears to the main shaft of my A883 four speed in 1979. After popping in a new 440 six pack engine I drove the car to the muffler shop to get the new headers lined up with the exhaust pipes. Someone told me the Chrysler manual transmission was bulletproof and you could drive it for a few miles with little or no oil. So that's what I did. Not a good idea. By about mile 5 you could barely move the pistol grip. Then it froze entirely. The mechanics at the Dodge dealership had a good laugh that day. They took apart the transmission and then marched to the parts department, where I worked, in a solemn procession. They put the main shaft on the parts counter with all the gears fused on. It looked like an automotive scepter. They laughed until they cried. It was an expensive lesson. I wish I had kept that shaft as a trophy!

 

[GTX JOHN]

None!

But I have hurt (Not exploded) a few 904 transmissions and 8 3/4 rears over the years.

 

[Kern Dog]

Just one, the original 327 in my 67 Camaro. Had steadied at 105 on the interstate way too early after fresh rebuild,

There are some people that feel that once the cam is broken in, the engine is ready for whatever you intend to do with it.
I’ve asked what miles people suggest for “break in” and read responses ranging from zero to 500 miles to drive easy.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

There are some people that feel that once the cam is broken in, the engine is ready for whatever you intend to do with it.
I’ve asked what miles people suggest for “break in” and read responses ranging from zero to 500 miles to drive easy.

Zero... You want a dog? Baby it....

 

[RemCharger]

I've hurt a few in the normal ways, broken rods, bent valves etc
But the bad one was a seasoned 383 bracket motor. Years of passes and wins, 7200 at least every shift finally let go about 3/4+ track. Smashed the waterpump. Sheared off 5 of the 6 bolts. Crank in 3 pieces. Ripped the webbing out, delaminated main caps with bent bolts. Stripped off all teeth on cam gear/ snapped t chain. The windage tray held most of that in. But at a 100 and some mph, the rear half of the rotating assembly was still doing its thing. That was a true " blown, or exploded, engine " here's the small trophy stuff I kept

 

[Kern Dog]

Zero... You want a dog? Baby it....

That is how I've treated the last 2 builds. They are holding together and the oil stays clean too.

 

[RemCharger]

Zero... You want a dog? Baby it....

Especially with a roller cam. Couple a heat cycles in the garage and it's ready for a 3 day race weekend.

 

[Kern Dog]

I've hurt a few in the normal ways, broken rods, bent valves etc
But the bad one was a seasoned 383 bracket motor. Years of passes and wins, 7200 at least every shift finally let go about 3/4+ track. Smashed the waterpump. Sheared off 5 of the 6 bolts. Crank in 3 pieces. Ripped the webbing out, delaminated main caps with bent bolts. Stripped off all teeth on cam gear/ snapped t chain. The windage tray held most of that in. But at a 100 and some mph, the rear half of the rotating assembly was still doing its thing. That was a true " blown, or exploded, engine " here's the small trophy stuff I keptView attachment 1678829

Holy crap....

I can clearly see how bent each of those rods are. That is amazing and terrible at the same time.

 

[multimopes]

I always had a long commute to work. In my almost 2 million miles of driving (only Mopar's), I lost only one and not on purpose. I had a 92 Daytona 2.5 with a 5 speed. I had to drive to work in the remnants of a hurricane. I went through a puddle at about 35 mph that was about a foot & a half deep. Well; the water got in the motor and I hydro locked it. Piston & rod came right through the side. Broke my heart as I loved that car. Took a year or two to find a decent replacement motor. I got it but never got the chance to install it. Ended up selling the car, replacement engine, and a slew of spare body and mechanical parts. The replacement engine only had 57,000 miles on it!

 

[451Mopar]

Hydrolocked a 350 GM that bent the rods.
Dropped a valve head at 6,000+ RPM in the old 451" stroker. Didn't break any rods, but the piston had holes in it and the head chamber had to be welded up and repaired. The intake valve was jamed up into the port which may have reduced the damage that could have happened.
Overreved a near stock 383 Mopar with 906 heads and bent some valves, but it still ran, but not well.
On the 500" stroker with 0.726" lift, I have broke the victor MW rocker stands and a rocker hold down stud and rocker shaft. That caused a pretty bad back fire and damaged a cylinder so it was sleeved.
Back when they started removing the zinc from oil, i wiped out a cam in a 360. Let it go too long, and needed to re-hone, re-ring, and new bearings, oil pump, cam lifters and such to repair.
Only a few rear axle and driveshaft failures, but several transmission failures.

 

[3sloppydogs]

Driving to work one day in my 77 CJ-5 I heard a noise and said to myself what is that? Well after doing up a long hill she quit. I destroyed a 258 I6, hard to believe, those things last forever. I replaced it with another

 

[dvw]

Lets see? The first failure was a spun bearing in a 440 at Milan as a 19 yearold. Heard it ticking and oil pressure was low. Drove it home 45 miles. Polished the crank and installed a new rod and bearings in the car. Years later detonated my supercharged 340, hone and replace pistons, repeat that again. Then built a 63 Polara racecar with a friend. He bought a "Super Stock" Max Wedge for it. 7 passes the #2/3 rods exited. Same car, same heads dropped a #7 exhaust seat and broke the valve. New piston, valve seat, and valve with a little honing fixed it. Same car 498 stroker stock block. Pulled the #1/2 main webs out of the block and broke the crank in half. Salvaged the valve train parts(5 new valves), heads, cam, oil pan, aluminum water pump housing (welded the hole from the balancer rubbing thru). Current car sent the #3 rod thru the pan. Welded up the pan, block, and head. New rotating assy it's still going. Transmision and axles would be another chapter
Doug

 

[Cranky]

Just one.

Back when we were kids my younger brother and I were arguing over a knocking sound coming from our '68 Formula S 383 4sp Barracuda. He said it was a main bearing, I said it was a connecting rod bearing. So we decided to hold the pedal on the floor and wait for it to blow. It did. Big hole in the side of the block with the connecting rod sticking through it. I said to my brother "See!"
View attachment 1678759

 

[SlingLow]

Just one engine twice. It was my wife's Mutsubishi Eclipse. The timing belt broke about 2k miles before it's first scheduled replacement. Bent or broke every single valve. Had it rebuilt and it broke again about 3k miles later. Turned out oil was leaking onto the belt and caused it to fail. I sold that car for a 12 pack or something like that.

 

[Cranky]

Eons ago, back in the garage, we purposely ran a Chevy 250 ci inline 6 without water or oil. To see how long it would run before seizing. It lasted almost 2 minutes.

At what rpm was it running at for it to only last 2 minutes?

There have been a few... By far the funniest one was a 3.8 V6 in a Taurus... I was working at a dealership & had a Taurus come in with a rod knock... I said rod knock, Service manager was sure it was carbon.... Insisted that I run a little water through the intake to loosen the carbon... So... I did... With him standing right there... It took less than fifteen seconds to confirm it was a rod knock... It kicked a
rod out the side of the block, dumped three gallons of coolant & five quarts of oil in my stall... Plus some tranny fluid which I didn't understand.... Until I started taking it apart... And found the rod had not only windowed the block but had punched a hole in the transmission too.... The whole thing was covered under warranty....

You would think that a SM would know something about engines etc but from my experience with them, they don't know squat but man, that was a funny story!!!

That is how I've treated the last 2 builds. They are holding together and the oil stays clean too.

My very first engine rebuild was done that way. Fired it up in the garage once in the car and made sure there were no leaks etc. Let it warm up and did another check for leaks etc. then backed it out into the street, put it in drive and lit up the tires

Hydrolocked a 350 GM that bent the rods.
Dropped a valve head at 6,000+ RPM in the old 451" stroker. Didn't break any rods, but the piston had holes in it and the head chamber had to be welded up and repaired. The intake valve was jamed up into the port which may have reduced the damage that could have happened.
Overreved a near stock 383 Mopar with 906 heads and bent some valves, but it still ran, but not well.
On the 500" stroker with 0.726" lift, I have broke the victor MW rocker stands and a rocker hold down stud and rocker shaft. That caused a pretty bad back fire and damaged a cylinder so it was sleeved.
Back when they started removing the zinc from oil, i wiped out a cam in a 360. Let it go too long, and needed to re-hone, re-ring, and new bearings, oil pump, cam lifters and such to repair.
Only a few rear axle and driveshaft failures, but several transmission failures.

I used to be horrible to my transmissions....like rolling forward at about 15mph then go to neutral for a split second then hit reverse and smoke the tires then go back into drive still with the throttle matted. Neutral drops were a common occurrence too.....

 

[Project66]

I have only blown-up one engine, but I did it well!

Back in 2004, I was riding my 2000 ZX6R at a track day and literally grenaded the motor with a "money shift" and spewed oil all the way down the front straight at Texas World Speedway. That was dumb.

When I prepped my bike for the track day, I decided to reverse the shift linkage because that's how all the racers do it (brilliant, right!). So I put in a couple of decent laps while trying to convince myself that reverse-shifting was just the ticket to lower lap times (even though no one was actually timing my laps or even cared how fast I went) and I got good drive out of the last corner, ran the bike to my usual 14K RPM redline in 3rd, clicked UP to 2nd, not 4th, and the motor revved to the moon, then died. Literally.

I think the tach showed about 20K before it quit. I grabbed the clutch, coasted to a stop and waited for the crash truck to come get me. My day was done.

When I took the fairings off, there were holes in the block and aluminum gravel everywhere. I replaced the motor with a used one from a low-mileage, California bike. I don't know why, but with the carbs from my 49-state bike, that motor ran strong.

I rode that bike for anther couple of years, but I stopped riding when my daughter was born. I didn't "give up" motorcycles, per se, I just couldn't enjoy it the way I used to. I finally sold the bike in 2020 and put the cash toward my car.

 

[Project66]

My last pic of the bike...