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What have you broken while out hot rodding your car?

The list of broken engines,transmissions and rear ends is endless. I was pretty rough on these cars back then. The most memorable one was blowing the clutch in my 70 Challenger R/T trying to recreate those Kowalski full throttle speed shifts after watching Vanishing Point one night!

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Nothing on my Mopars. My 87 Shelby GLHS however...
Stripped axle splines. Twice
Broke transmissions. Twice
Dropped valve retainer. Destroyed engine.
Broke motor mount.
 
Shorter answer is what haven't I broken. So far I think the steering wheel, wait, no, yeah, steering wheel. That's my final answer.
 
My first car...1969 Dart...

Dart AA.jpg


318, of course. It broke a drivers side motor mount and sometimes on hard left turns under throttle, the engine would lift enough to pull the exhaust pipes apart. The slip fit must have been real short. It went from chugga chugga chugga to blat blat blat instantly. Hey...Instant hot rod!
 
Back in the 70's I scattered a couple 440's & I tore a driveshaft out... Then I took my Mopar off the road for a few years & since I put that one back together & every Mopar since I haven't destroyed anything.... It's not that I quit beating on them.. At least not back then.. These days I'll still spin the tires & run it out to the redline now & then but I don't run it out to the redline & keep it there for extended runs... I think it's a combination of a little less abuse & building them a little better...
 
Other than "normal" wear
and tear, I've never had a
breakdown that involved
a horse beating of any cars
I've owned. Too expensive
to fix on a poor man's
budget. I've yet even to
attempt a burnout on a 450
hp 2014 Mustang GT. I
already know the tires would
be history as long as I
stayed in it. Even though
such an action would be
a great boost on the
adrenaline side, the wallet
side speaks the loudest.
 
Had a (insert famous brand name here) flex fan explode in shrapnel on a '73 Cutlass I owned in high school.
Sucker went all over the place, slicing and dicing all manner of hoses and belts - and of course, spearing
the radiator in the process.
One shard actually came through the car hood and lodged itself like some sort of iceberg, sticking straight
up out of it...
Last time ever for me with any manner of flex fans - and no, I don't care what anyone elses' experiences
have been with them, thanks.

Speaking of Olds critters, my first ever car ('64 F85) had a tendency to eat motor mounts - and having the
venerable 225 V-6 in it, it wasn't from massive torque I reckon...
When the drivers' mount would break, the engine would torque over and jam the accelerator linkage wide
open, which was good for a thrill.

Other than bending up a few assorted chunks of $100 iron back when very young, that's about it.
Very blessed/fortunate to have never blown anything else up, mostly because it's been 99% Mopars from
those early days on.
 
My second 440 in the red car threw a rod but still ran.

The term “threw a rod” means throwing a connecting rod. Is that what you mean? Like to hear the details.

A friend threw a rod in his 389 GTO. I think he salvaged the carb and intake.
 
My 67 R/T quit running right in front of an AutoZone store 50 miles from home. Coasted into their parking lot. Worn out fuel pump pushrod. Bought an electric fuel pump, some fuel line and some wire. On the road in an hour.
 
My engine guy says I seem to have the worst luck. I have broken things that have caused the same statement more than a few times.

“I don’t remember seeing anything like this before”
 
Between having had hundreds of mopars, and using everything to it's potential....I think I've broken about 1 of everything. I've had 50+ years of practice.

This one always cracks me up.

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My S/S 360 ran back to the pits, after some parts decided to "go home early"......

Blown-up 360-4.jpg

Blown-up 360-3.jpg
 
I’m either very lucky or easier on my cars than most. I’ve had only one significant mechanical failure since starting to drive in 1967. It was a camshaft that sheared in two in a 72 Datsun pickup that I was just cruising along in and it suddenly shut off. Fortunately it was a non-interference engine. I’ve thrown and broken belts, distributor wire come lose, TI amp on Corvette die, had a Ford ignition module die in a pickup, etc, but no real mechanical carnage. And my first vehicle, a 64 Plymouth Sport Fury, was driven hard and probably abused due to youthful ignorance, but it never left me stranded.
 
My dad had several issues with a 421, engine mounts, the Muncie 4 spd was a major weak link, spun the cluster gear shaft and other stuff when it was new. The rock crusher was crushed by the 421! Myself engine mounts, fan blades, belts axle shafts...
 
No major carnage, but I had the uncanny ability to find the weakest link…
Motor mounts
727 tail housing
U-joints (many)
Timing chain
Pumped up lifters
Bent pushrods
Rear differential
Lost lug nuts
Broke shifter off a 4 speed
Totally fragged a C6
Throttle cable
Blown mufflers
 
The term “threw a rod” means throwing a connecting rod. Is that what you mean? Like to hear the details.

A friend threw a rod in his 389 GTO. I think he salvaged the carb and intake.
Uhhh, I'm well aware of what the term means.
Yes, the rod broke just above the big end. The piston came up and slammed into the head. rotated a few degrees and stayed at about 1/4" below TDC, bending the valves in cyl #2. The big end stayed on the crank journal. It went from 3800 rpms to BAM really quick. I was not in a safe place to leave the car and didn't have a number for a towing service. It still ran so I drove over to my mother's place tucked in a residential neighborhood.
 
After modifying the 383 in my 67 Satellite that I bought new, I broke driveline components on a regular basis before replacing them with better parts. 3 Mopar clutches, busted u joints, twisted driveshaft, spread the yoke in the 8 3/4, and broke the 1st/2nd shift fork in a 23 spline 833. I have never damaged a engine, even running that 383 to 7000 rpms on shifts and going through the traps in the quarter at 7500-8000 rpms.
 
How about this?

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Ok, that wasn't me.

Not hot-rodding at the time, but I pulled away from a stoplight one night in my '70 GTX and discovered one of the lines for my air shocks had developed a hole. There I sat - on my L60s. I had to get a ride home, grab some skinny tires, and swap them out on Main St. Then I limped it home. How embarrassing.
 
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