Catastrophic engine failure - share your stories

[PWMDMD]

Closest I've come was a 1999 Dodge Neon with about 70K miles on it - it ran but sounded like a ride-on lawnmower on life support as I drove into the dealer lot. It wasn't a catastrophic failure but that engine could definitely see the light...

Besides the Neon, I have never had any major issues with engines or transmissions owning Toyota, Lexus, Audi, Mazda, Volvo, Acura, Subaru, and Honda.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Grew up on some property as a teen and we used a Gravely walk-behind mower to cut grass and occasionally larger stuff with the bush hog attachment.

So long story short I started it up one morning and about 1 mins later it seized and broke a rod (you could hear the rod going "tap tap tap tap" as slowly wound down).. I don't remember if it had oil but I seem to remember that my mom just had it serviced*. Perhaps the guy forgot to add oil or didn't add enough? I don't remember how or why they got rid of it but a week or so later a John Deere riding mower appeared in our garage.

I hated that Gravely. Ours had the two-wheel seat which you'd attach at the back and the parking brake would rattle itself free all the time.

* My stepfather wasn't handy guy because his career required fine motor skills and didn't want to risk injuring his hands.

 

[WeyounDS9]

I used to autoX Nissan 370Z in summertime heat.
No problems.
Of course knew enough to ignore the factory recommendation for 5w-30 and run a 15w-50 all season.
This was the first model year with oil cooler (or improved cooler?) from the factory since 5w-30 had shown itself too thin during hard running.

 

[IndyIan]

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.

In the 2000's I used to see various 80's, and 90's Ford exploders and Aerovan's leave a big oily trail sometimes a mile long, before they were on the shoulder with a big puddle of oil under them... Just commuting on a 55mph road... Never saw any big parts on the road but something pretty significant happened to hole a pan or block like that in one instant.

I did do the 2nd to 1st "upshift" on my Focus wagon at autocross, but not at redline in 2nd, maybe 1k rpm down near 6k rpm... It rev'd way up for a second to maybe 10-11k rpm but I got the clutch in again pretty fast! It seemed to just take it though? No funny noises... I read that in the UK they use the 2.0 duratec for some spec racing series and rev them to 8500 all day, so I guess 10k for a second wasn't too much for it. The motor also had about 150k miles on it at the time and went for 20k more miles before my buddy smashed the car, also at autocross....

I seized my CT-110 motor bike for about 50' while WO in top gear, after spinning some screws on the carb when I was 13.... Locked the rear tire at 50mph and it came unstuck after a second. Drove it home and Dad and I reset the carb adjustments and it ran the same as it always did for as long as we had it.

Also seized the rotax 340 twin on a sled, also WO at ~55mph, and it also unseized in 100'... Drove it home slowly and realized the outer crank seal on the left side had been leaking for a while so that cylinder was running lean(single carb). We just richened the carb up until the lean side plug was tan(ish) and drove it for another year or two. It would foul the plug on the rich cylinder but we'd just switch the plugs and it would clean the black one up in the leaner cylinder by the time the other plug fouled... It was a bit slower with the carb so fat but not too bad.

I had the cylinder base gasket partially blow out of my 84 IT200 and it suddenly was running very "crisply"! This was after my previous lean seizures so I stopped right away. We just loosened the cylinder bolts with the wrenches in the little tool kit, stuffed the cardboard gasket back where it was supposed to be and tightened the cylinder down again. I can't recall if I ever replaced the gasket? Anyways it ran fine after that for as long as we had it...

 

[chainblu]

Grenaded the 396 in my Nova shortly after I graduated HS. Doing a "test and tune" on the unofficial dragstrip in my town after replacing the intake manifold. Was running great, but apparently the gasket was letting water leak into the intake valley. Heard a sudden and awful rod knock and before I got off the gas, the piston came in contact with the head and disintegrated leaving a pistonless connecting rod slinging around at 6000+ rpm. Total destruction. Fist size holes in the cylinder wall, broken camshaft (custom grind - expensive) and an oil pan full or water.

I've taken apart blown engines since then, but I have never seen as much damage as this one. I could scoop hand fulls of shrapnel from the oil pan. I took what parts were salvageable and pieced together a 427 using a 454 block and an off the shelf cam. It was fast, but not as fast as that 396.

 

[doublebase]

I’ve seen a few. When I was younger a friend of mine did donuts in a snow storm in a church parking lot. Kept doing them and doing them, and I thought…this is crazy. Then, bang. Stalled. Wouldn’t start. Engine blown.

I blew an engine in my lawnmower. Thing started really making some bearing noises, lot of shaking. Then stalled. Engine seized.

Most blown engines aren’t too dramatic, but I’ve also seen a connecting rod go through the block of a Dodge Caravan. And my brother in law blew the engine on his snow blower…decided to use a bolt as a shear pin, hit something and broke the camshaft in half. I took it apart - he told me, it just won’t start, think it’s bad gas. Well, it was more than bad gas.

 

[jetman]

Broken numerous Detroit Diesels, from blower shaft drives to full on ventilation mode.

Temm me about the Detroits you blewup? 8V91?

Your handle is "Taildragger" ? My personel airplane is a Glasair1 Taildragger since 1995

 

[Flatrate]

I've never had one pop myself.

Back around 1998 IIRC my uncle had a new F-250 gas engine. Had it for around a year or so and one day something went south with it. He took it to the dealership demanding a new engine under warranty. They sent the oil filter to a lab and determined he never changed the oil in it, once.

A funny one I was told about. Some years ago I was talking with a guy I knew and was telling him the story above. He told me that back in the day his father in law had a Pontiac and he wanted to "clean the engine" so he poured a decent amount of Simple Green in the oil fill.

 

[Taildragger]

Temm me about the Detroits you blewup? 8V91?

Your handle is "Taildragger" ? My personel airplane is a Glasair1 Taildragger since 1995 View attachment 112231

Love the Glasairs! Had a few taildraggers, currently a 7GCBC. The Detroits ranged from a 6V53 to 12V71s. Most common failures were just 6-71s. Had a R-985 break a con-rod in flight, didn't hole the case and made an uneventful landing.

 

[Wylie6G72]

Only one I've ever witnessed was a lawn mower owned by the father of my high school girlfriend. He cranked it for the first mow of the season, pushed it about 15 feet, and the piston and some other parts hit the side of the house.

 

[Chris142]

Grenaded the 396 in my Nova shortly after I graduated HS. Doing a "test and tune" on the unofficial dragstrip in my town after replacing the intake manifold. Was running great, but apparently the gasket was letting water leak into the intake valley. Heard a sudden and awful rod knock and before I got off the gas, the piston came in contact with the head and disintegrated leaving a pistonless connecting rod slinging around at 6000+ rpm. Total destruction. Fist size holes in the cylinder wall, broken camshaft (custom grind - expensive) and an oil pan full or water.

I've taken apart blown engines since then, but I have never seen as much damage as this one. I could scoop hand fulls of shrapnel from the oil pan. I took what parts were salvageable and pieced together a 427 using a 454 block and an off the shelf cam. It was fast, but not as fast as that 396.

Was the 396 an L-78? The standard run of the mill 325-350 hp 396 is pretty unimpressive. The weird 1969 only one with a 2 bbl is a real turd.

 

[01rangerxl]

In the 2000's I used to see various 80's, and 90's Ford exploders and Aerovan's leave a big oily trail sometimes a mile long, before they were on the shoulder with a big puddle of oil under them... Just commuting on a 55mph road... Never saw any big parts on the road but something pretty significant happened to hole a pan or block like that in one instant.

I would bet on that actually being transmission fluid from a major torque converter seal failure caused by a bad bushing on the input shaft. They can pour ATF when this happens.

 

[walterjay]

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.

Must have been Allingham Motors at that time.

 

[cb_13]

I killed probably 50 during cash for clunkers!

No personal automobiles. A couple two stroke atvs and a couple of push mowers that were mine.

The one that I had die on me while driving was Windstar with about 200k miles. Had a knock when hot. Service manager told me to take it for a drive and see if I could verify it, told me to take a phone in case I needed a wrecker. I made it back to the lot but had to coast a couple hundred yards to do so.

 

[Alien]

Must have been Allingham Motors at that time.

No, it was in Liberal. I don't recall the name of the dealership, but it no longer exists.

 

[meep]

Not exactly the same but the vehicle was totaled…

bought a ‘73 VW bus with 150k on it. It had floated from shadetree to shadetree for 4 years, so I bought it for $5 from the owner, whose lawn I mowed. After a few weeks I figured out the timing was 90 degrees off and it came to life. It was tired; practical top speed was about 25 mph and it ran best short-shifting. I drove it … everywhere.

i was working the bugs out and was getting an idea of what all it was going to need.

we lived on a steep hill and it could only make it half way up before it would pooter out, so I’d usually leave it and come back later after it cooled to bring it the rest of the way. One day I came back down to get it and with a fresh tank of gas, it had overflowed the carbs and hydrolocked several cylinders. I figured it out after a while and drained them by pulling the plugs and cranking it. Let it dry, cleaned the mess, installed the plugs. Good to go. I didn’t think about gas pooling in the muffler. Turned the key-



the entire van filled with flames, got some of my hair, and burned to the ground. After the tires were gone, the starter engaged and it drove forward with the horn screaming out in a painful warble. I hated to see it go. It was a bad scene.

 

[ka9mnx]

Love the Glasairs! Had a few taildraggers, currently a 7GCBC. The Detroits ranged from a 6V53 to 12V71s. Most common failures were just 6-71s. Had a R-985 break a con-rod in flight, didn't hole the case and made an uneventful landing.

53 series were turd engines with their wet liners. 12V-71? In a truck? 6-71's were pretty reliable.

 

[RDY4WAR]

I was a teenager and my dad was a teenager maturity wise. We thought it would be a good idea to spray a 380 shot of nitrous on a stock longblock '84 Ford 302. Right at the 1/4-mile, it sent the #2 rod and piston into outer space. Found the rod cap mangled on the track, never found the rod or piston. Just a giant hole in the block.

 

[chainblu]

Was the 396 an L-78?

I wish! No, it started life as a 325 horse in a '67 Impala. I bought the whole car from somebody who drove it from Michigan. I don't know how it made the trip to Florida without falling apart from all the rust holes it had and (maybe) running on 6 cylinders.

 

[chainblu]

Right at the 1/4-mile, it sent the #2 rod and piston into outer space.

And... what did the time slip say??