Who has had a real engine failure?

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: UltrafanUK
What did Fram say ??

I bet they sent you a new filter once they saw the pics !!

MG Spitfire ran out of oil due to bad rings and valve guide oil seals (Poor previous service history).

Cummins 300 marine TDI dropped an exhaust valve trashing the head. Repaired under warranty by the boat munfacturer cos the problem was caused by use of too course a pitch prop overloading the engine.
What's an "MG Spitfire"?

 

[zzyzzx]

Obligatory reference to blown Kia engine thread:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4263168/1

 

[spackard]

I think Panzerman wins.

2 motorcycle engines and a VW Diesel.
The diesel seized 10 minutes after I took over driving it, after a friend
had been driving for 3 hours. His dad wasn't happy that I wouldn't pay
for a rebuild, but why should I? I was treating it gently and watching
the gauges like a hawk to get a feel for what normal would look like.
Had to get back from Rosarito, B.C., to Long Beach, CA on $20, for
the both of us.

Dad became a little less cold to me after the rebuilt seized on him
a week after he got it out of the VW dealer. Plus, he had to wait
3 weeks on the first rebuild because too many others in line to get
rebuilt engines.

 

[Andrew1972]

At 170k my wife's 2005 Subaru Legacy turbo wagon burned a valve seat. It's only check engine light.

It was pricey as it involved full engine removal to get valve job and about $800 of parts not required but replaced while there.

It's her 70 mile round trip commuter now with 207k.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted By: Kibitoshin
1990 Toyota 4Runner V6 3.slow. Engine had a head gasket failure that was dumping coolant into the crankcase. The next day the truck could not start because the coolant rusted/seized everything in place. The dipstick reading two inches above full a couple days earlier should've been a warning.
I blame the poor exhaust manifold design which can be better seen here.

The exhaust setup on that 3.0 has nothing to do with the head gasket failure inherent to that engine. There was actually recalled by Toyota for the gaskets. The replacement engine the 3.4 had the exact same exhaust setup and didn't suffer from the same issues as the 3.0.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Chris142
My 302 and 350 Chevy's both ate cams at low milages. I consider that a failure. My 350 got a rod knock soon after the new cam was installed. Had a 340 Dodge drop 2 valves,destroyed the 2 pistons.My boss' wrangler needed rod bearings @174K due to a light knock, Bearings were into the copper. My 86 Mitsubishi needed a valve job @35k ...crankshaft broke @44k. A fram oil filter came apart in my moms dodge omni and plugged the oil feed to the head. ruined the cam and head.
A FRAM failure trashed an engine? The Fram boys claim that had never happened.
well it was in the early 90's.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

The old brown van used to like to blow head gaskets. It was run without coolant multiple times as a result, but it kept on chugging. After several such incidents, someone suggested to Dad that he put a neutral balance shaft kit in it. I don't know what that could have had to do with it, but the 2.6 Mitsu never blew another head gasket after that.

 

[ammolab]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: UltrafanUK
What did Fram say ??

I bet they sent you a new filter once they saw the pics !!

MG Spitfire ran out of oil due to bad rings and valve guide oil seals (Poor previous service history).

Cummins 300 marine TDI dropped an exhaust valve trashing the head. Repaired under warranty by the boat munfacturer cos the problem was caused by use of too course a pitch prop overloading the engine.
What's an "MG Spitfire"?


A little British sports car...like those Triumph Midgets!

 

[Kuato]

One. In my 1977 Plymouth Volare wagon with the Slant 6. Usually an indestructible motor, this one may have had no oil changes in 85k before I bought it for $100. While doing the leaky head gasket, my brother and I found 1/2" of solid crusted oil inside the block, with some clogged galleries. We should have just closed it up and done short intervals, but instead got a screwdriver and the shop vac and tried to clean it up as much as possible - without dropping the pan to clean THAT up.

Apparently a chunk of old oil got into the bearings and rod knock showed up less than 100 miles later.

So...swapped in the '74 engine from the car that had just been totalled (lady pulled out in front of me) and drove the wagon for 2 years and over 80k miles!

 

[vitez]

2006 Dodge Ram Cummins 5.9 diesel. Last year it started to surge, way down on power, and sounded strange. Drove it another once or twice, then overheat warning light came on. After a couple of assessments by two diesel shops the diagnosis was a dead cylinder 1. I had the engine rebuilt. Yikes it was expensive! I could have bought a nice gasoline race motor for what that cost. Autopsy showed cracked piston rings and scored liner, plus worn valve train and turbo. I thought I bought a good used pickup, but found out it was good-n-used......

 

[UltrafanUK]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Wot, no head-gasket/warped head failures?

I thought the cooling system was supposed to be the primary failure mode for liquid-cooled engines?

Or are y'all just obsessed with oil?



Very true of some owners I know who had lower radiator hose clamps fail and missed the overheat light. Most petrol jobs will survive a steam train job, BUT it often results in a warped head and big time HG leak for a diesel.
Blown turbo's are also popular for those who have big boots and use El-cheapo air filters or Iffylube standard thin oils for far too long. Failing to vacuum out the air filter housing when changing the element is also popular with some TDI owners and all it takes to ding a turbo rotor is for one tiny metal flakes (Or a lump of far Eastern air filter) to break loose at high revs to ruin your whole day, although an unbalanced rotor will take some time to chew out the turbo bearings, or wear out the oil seal.

 

[Ducked]

Was kangarooing my 1800 Marina while trying to change gear without a clutch because of a hydraulic clutch master cylinder failure. I broke a piston ring, which chewed up the side and top of the piston a bit and flattened the plug side electrode before (presumably) blowing out of the exhaust valve.

You could remove pistons without taking the engine out on that car so I replaced the ring, did a decoke (except for the damaged cylinder which had already been sort of shot-blasted) and re-ground the valves. Lasted another couple of years until a spring hanger rotted through. Sold it to my GF's parents neighbour, who was going to weld it, but they moved so I dunno if he did.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
We see a lot of talk here about engines dying for whatever reason.
I've owned a number of vehicles over the past forty years, some of which went past 200K and I've never had an engine fail.
They might use or leak a little more oil as the years and the miles accumulate and they might lose a little power but they haven't seemed to fail outright.
I know that some engines have baked-in problems that may result in early failure, but how many here have seen an engine in daily driven road use given reasonable, non OCD maintenance fail at anything much less than 200K?
I haven't and I don't think it happens more often out of 100K engines than one can count on the fingers of his hands.


None of mine, but I see them come in regularly... and we haven't sold 100k engines, yet we see more than a handful.

 

[Robenstein]

Had a couple race motors come apart. Only one on the streets was a GM 3100 that had the came break in two at around 130k.

When wrenching I saw many though. Usually due to coolant contamination or waterlocking by driving into deep water during a storm.

 

[grampi]

The 1.8 in my '99 Corolla lost a valve at 295K...

 

[KenO]

When I was very young I had a '91 Grand prix....it threw 3 rods thru the oilpan. I've had a couple head gasket failures etc, but no other catastrophic failures that I didn't already buy that way. bought a '00 Subaru Outback sport with a bad rod knock. Rally'd it thru the backyard until it seized, then put a motor in it.

 

[andyd]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Wot, no head-gasket/warped head failures?

I thought the cooling system was supposed to be the primary failure mode for liquid-cooled engines?

Or are y'all just obsessed with oil?

You want overheats? Back when we were DINKs , MDW melted #4 piston due to my slowness to replace a leaky radiator. Bought a wreck ed hulk had the head done. removed #4 rod and piston. re-used rod shells and rings. Drove on for another 50 k
back when I was working at a college I had a 74 Dart I bought for 50$ and drove it for 2 yrs. The engine was an oily mess. A pin hole leak in the releaf hose on the water pump leak coolant onto the fan belt. Massive overheat I was a mile from the exit after coasting for over a mile. There was a break in the guard rail and I jumped the curb and got the steaming hulk off the road. Next morning my brother towed it home. I was driving a newly purchased 62 F 250 with the 223 I6 , Mainline 6. I was young and stupid. The truck had 4.88 gears I got about 15 miles down I 95 (rt 128) for the locals. It started knocking, death rattle. I floored it to clean out the rod, etc so the engine wouldn't seize. I looked in the side mirror and there were pieces bouncing behind me The Firebird behind me had its wiper going to clear his windshield. I was struggling to get the truck over and limp down the breakdown lane to the rest area just south of the Pike. I had bought the truck knowing the engine was bad. If I had chosen a slower route home it probably would have done fine. I put a good 223 in it and the old truck soldiered on for another decade.

 

[Srt20]

Ive wreck a lot of engines. Many had "ventilation" holes, some just squeaked pistons, some dropped valves, etc.

Only a few were stock. Most were heavily modified.

 

[Anduril]

2009 Hyosung GV250 (motorcycle) seized up when the oil plug fell out going down the freeway. Sadly I was the last one to change the oil in it

 

[IndyIan]

No Ford Explorer or Aerostar failures? For a while in the mid 2000's I'd see a big splash of oil on the road with a quickly diminishing trail leading one of those two parked at the side of the road, seemed like a couple times a month.
We've had a few head gasket failures over the years but caught them all in time to get the car fixed.