Catastrophic engine failure - share your stories

I was driving a Ford F350 Box Truck (460 engine) delivering "Spirits" back in '84 or '85 and everything was normal, going 60 mph on a 2 lane asphalt road and there was a sudden short rattle burst then thud, and the bottom end came out the oil pan, once I stopped and put the small oil fire out on the exhaust, I walked back down the road to marvel at the damage. The entire rotating assembly was scattered in pieces including most of the pushrods. First time I personally witnessed large rotating mass leaving the security of the engine block. The truck was never abused, always had oil changes on a mile/time schedule, tune-up, etc. To this day that is still the most violent end of life for a V8 for me.
 
Only once. In the late 70's I bought a 58 Ford wagon with an inline six from a friend with a slight rod knock, but real good body, for $50 from a friend. I babied it home but in the last mile there was a slight hill to climb. Well, the knock got real loud and BANG, a new vent hole in the block. The following weekend I drove 500 miles to NW Wisconsin where I had an 61 pickup with the same engine sitting in the woods at my wife's grandfathers place. I borrowed his dozer and torches and had the engine out in two hours. Turned around and drove back home. That engine was shot but it was whole. I used the best parts from both engines and rebuilt it. It was a three speed stick with overdrive. Wife and I loved that car and drove it many years. Yea, it was a stick and her car.
 
A '73 Yamaha 360 2-stroke at WOT seized miles from anywhere. After sitting for several minutes it unseized and I got it home and 2/3 to work the next day before it lost compression for good. Took me over a year before I saved up enough money to have it rebuilt, then broke my leg on it (well, slamming it into a parked car) several weeks later.

There was a buddy's dad's '79 or so VW diesel that seized south of Rosarito Beach in Baja Calif. Two of us, $20 in my pocket, zero in his. I think it was a $5 bus trip to the border, however far $15 in a cab took us, walk to Amtrak, credit card tickets back to Fullerton. His dad thought we were doing something abusive, and we weren't. About a month after his dad had the engine rebuilt it seized on him, in a similar way. I'd heard he stopped blaming us after that. Also, at the time, there were over a dozen VW diesels sitting at the dealer, seized, waiting for parts from the fatherland.

An '83 BMW R100RT I had to ride it out of a remote area in a national park, with what turned out to be a bad oil pump. Kept low-rpm'ing it and watching oil temp until I got it out and home, then called a tow truck to have it rebuilt at the dealer. The engine case halves make up a cup for the pump, and were scored. I got lucky - they found a salvage engine case and I paid about $3k for the rebuild. Want to buy it?
 
Last edited:
I bought a new '89 Wrangler 4 cylinder manual. It was just over a year old when it threw cylinder No 1's rod cruising at 60. No warning, just a bang and clack, clack, clack.....
It was drivable, would start back up, but had a hole in the block that you could see the No. 1 rod broke clean just above the crank. Jeep replaced it under warranty.
Mom had a Dodge Dart with the 225 slant six and automatic trans in the '80s. Youngest brother threw a rod through the block by revving in neutral and slamming into gear to do burnouts. He payed for a junkyard engine and I did the swap. I don't think it took more than 4 hours to have it out and in and up and running. Easy cars to work on.
 
I took a Power Mechanics class in high school (1969). The first day, the teacher gave the students a written pretest. Based on the scores, students were assigned an engine to tear down, measure clearances, make necessary corrections and reassemble. Top scorers were assigned a nice Pontiac 326. Next group got a good slant 6. Next, was an abused Buick nail head. Lowest group got a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine. (Everyone didn't get a trophy in those days.)

When the day came to start the reassembled engines (which were all on stands), the slant 6 group started theirs. It ran a few seconds when a kid from the Briggs group walked over and did something to the carburetor. It ran wide open. Everyone took cover while the Six threw a rod through the side of the block. Teacher was furious!
 
I've only had moderate engine failure :ROFLMAO:


The original engine in my F-350 ate a bunch of washers and killed lots of stuff in cyl. 5. It was a bunch of lowes washers based on the engraved part numbers. Best I can tell is my dad always had it dealer serviced and someone wanted it cheap so they tossed a bunch of washers down the intake. It decided to wait until I borrowed it to actually ingest the washers. But it chewed up piston 5 pretty good, bent the valves and embedded washer parts into the head itself. Wish I had pictures.


Just got done replacing the engine in my Grand marquis because of some sort of issue on cylinder 5. Similar thing. Something made its' way into cylinder 5.

Jeeps and rollovers don't always end well if you don't pull the plugs. If you lay it over on the passenger side, the oil will just run into and out of the valve cover. Set it upright and let it drain back through the lifter galleys and it's fine. But put it over on the driver's side and the oil will run past the rings and you hydrolock and make extra CCV ports.

The "I do cars" channel is a favorite to watch on youtube.
 
I had a air cooled VW that dropped a valve into a piston. No real noise, just wouldn't go. Rebuilt if for $500.00
I had the same situation happen to me. I had just started dating this new girl, who I ended up marrying (we've been married 45 years now). We were driving her 1961 VW Bug up to her parents house in the mountains. They were away on vacation or something. We were going up there to enjoy several days of "fun" with each other. Engine dropped a valve on the way up. As a consequence our "fun" never happened.

Scott
 
In 1972, driving my 1969 VW Beetle to California, the engine seized at full speed on a two-lane highway in the middle of Kansas. A nice fellow in a pickup stopped, hooked up a cable, and towed me into the next town. Fortunately, that town had a VW dealership. It turned out that a valve had broken off and made a big hole in the top of a piston. It took a week (it was Christmas week), but the dealership repaired it, and I was on my way again. In California I changed the oil and found big chunks of metal in the pan. The dealership had not replaced the oil cooler.
 
This is a V8 diesel generator engine I’ve been looking at for work. Engine failure during 100% load test. Number 7 piston got slightly warm.
Liner cracked which allowed oil pan to fill with coolant.

2BED1B34-8BAE-470E-9A95-613C42C1D63A.jpeg
04D0E8C5-61EC-460D-A622-C451A6273A43.jpeg
9C45BBD0-46C0-48E2-86FD-A074DC71DF1B.jpeg
 
Someone I knew a long time ago was racing a Corvette with his newly purchased mid-50’s Chevy with a performance built motor in it. He shifted up normally but when he went to fourth he accidentally picked second instead.

The flywheel shattered and came up through the floorboard and firewall. A piece of the flywheel went through the metal rod of the throttle missing his foot by a couple of inches.

He bent some valves as well.
 
Couple years back, we had a brand new 6.4 SRT Challenger at work. Bright yellow, and which I nicknamed Big Bird after a few weeks of it being worked on. Someone went for test drive and check engine light came on. Other Tech got it, only with about 50 miles on it. Oil pressure performance code. Oil in it looked bad....very off color...and just weird looking. Contacted tech line, and they had us change oil and filter, and send them a sample. Test drive later , code back. I said it needs an engine. I will say it was quiet.....but oil pressure was on low limit. Nope Chrysler has us change oil sender , take pressure readings, change oil again,then PCM. I kept saying.....needs an engine.....nope they didn't think so. As foreman, I drove it home each night, after other tech did something too it each time . Code always returned. Last night I drove it after PCM, I start it to go home(50 miles), and I notice mileage is 392....wow whats the chances? Good or bad omen?? lol
Mil light came on half way home(shocker).On way home, traffic was heavy on highway, but about a mile before my exit I got a long open stretch so I layed into it hard. Probably a min or 2 of WOT. Worked ok. Pulled off , and as I was waiting at end of exit ramp an old slow truck drives by and I pull out behind him. I can see a long way ahead(country road) so I lay on it hard ,and it drops several gears and flashes to almost redline. Just as I do, I can tell something is wrong.....it makes lots of noise(those 392s sounds real nice WOT), but feels really flat/low on power........oh oh..... JUST as I think I better get out of the throttle, and right beside the old truck , it (found out later) vaporizes 2 pistons and rods. and shoves them out the block/down through the pan. Boy did it sound ugly! HUGE cloud of smoke, and parts out the back. After I pulled over, a few minutes pass, thankfully, no flames from all the oil.....the old guy in the old farmtruck passes by.....slowly shaking his head:LOL:
So! it finally got an engine;) Even cat converters, as they were full of engine bits. Expensive warranty claim that one!
 
My old boss at the radiator shop used to pull his wrangler behind his motorhome. The jeep book says to put the transfer case in neutral and the 5 speed in 1st gear. He forgot the transfer case part and towed the jeep 60 mph in 1st gear for several miles before someone honked.

When he looked back pieces of engine were flying everywhere. It threw all 6 rods, harmonic balancer broke off the snout and all 12push rods were sticking out the valve cover. Kinda looked like a porky pine.

In 1984 I got a brand new atc 250r 3wheeler from my parents for learning how to type. The dealer prepped it and we took it home. I unloaded it,let it warm up a little and took of very gently.

Got to 2nd gear and the piston seized. The dealer warrantied it but it never was right after that.
 
Worst I’ve ever done was melt down the 4 banger in a 1995 Camry. Warped the head AND block on that one!

Did see over 300F coolant temp on my Durango once… left it idling for 10-15 minutes while I walked my now wife into her house while we were dating, came back to the fan at full bore and thought “that’s weird… it’s 20F out.” Temp needle was BURIED in the red, quickly pulled up the digital display and it was over 300! Somehow that survived just fine, just needed a new water pump.
 
Seen my fair share of carnage over the years, But one sticks out from the rest!

Gen II LT1, 4 Bolt splayed cap Block, Forged 383 Stroker Crank, H-beam Rods, Forged Pistons, AFR Cylinder Heads, Worked LT4 Intake, Mono-Blade Throttle Body. With a centrifugal supercharger......In a 1996 Impala SS. Quite powerful & VERY expensive.

@ 3 years goes by without seeing the car, Then comes in on a Hook because the engine locked up per the owner.

Tore it down & it was pretty bad. #2 Intake Valve Spring had broke & the Valve dropped into the cylinder.....Punched a bunch of holes in #2 Piston & somehow knocked the head off the Exhaust valve.
These 2 Valves wanted to party.....Both went though the #2 Intake Runner, Into the Intake manifold then into #3 & #5 cylinders on the opposite bank. #2 Intake Valve was found with it's stem punched through the Cylinder Head in #3 cylinder, The head of the exhaust valve tore up #5 cylinder.

Still to this day.....Don't know how the #2 Intake Valve was able to get into #3 cylinder with half it's stem intact, The land perfectly on the piston & get rammed into the cylinder head.

Because it had Forged Pistons.....The rotating assembly minus 3 pistons survived, And the Splayed Main Caps were installed on a different block.
The intake had a crack in it from one of valves hitting it at the speed of sound, Was able to weld it up.

Both heads were pretty much destroyed.
 
I wasn’t there, but years and years ago my folks had a 1975 Duster with the slant-6. It was older and high mileage, but I think well looked after; they definitely didn’t drive it hard.
Driving down the highway one day, it apparently just exploded all over the road - spread an oily, metal filled mess all over all lanes of the road.
The police that responded were not amused, in fact they were downright angry and basically threatened to arrest my folks for causing such a mess and disruption.
Interesting. One of my friends had a white '60 Dodge Dart with a slant 6 engine. He had beaten on it quite a bit and it had a lot of miles on it too (like 150 or 200,000 miles, which was a lot in those days). His blew up idling at the gas pumps. He was working as a mechanic at the time and they towed his poor old Dodge to the back of the lot and that was the end of it.
 
The only car that ever lost an engine for me was my 1st car. a used 63 Corvair. It burnt more oil than gas. I was on my way home from a part time job and the thing started blowing smoke like it was on fire. It locked up a few seconds after the smoke screen. I dont think it ever ran again, nobody wanted them and the junk dealer charged me $25 to tow it away. It cost me $175 in 1969 and only lasted 11 mos. It was replaced by a 1965 Mustang with a 6 cyl and 3 speed. 42,000 miles and $600. Lasted until I got my draft notice.
 
Back
Top