After seeing the destruction of some nitro engines at the NHRA Fall Nationals we want to turn the spotlight on YOU fair reader and get some information on what hell you’ve managed inflict on innocent engine components! In our opinion, part of being a gearhead is occasionally pushing your junk to, and maybe even over the mechanical limits. We’re not ashamed to say that we’ve killed more than a couple engines in the heat of battle. Well, we actually killed one engine while being loaded up to head into the heat of battle, but that’s another kettle of fish.
The mills that we have sent to the scrap pile in the sky while thrashing them on the strip were kind of like training wheels. They were both very budget based stroker small block Chevy engines. Using kits from PAW (remember them?) we assembled them with our dad and over the course of a couple seasons kept asking the bottom end to do more and more until it couldn’t do no mo. One busted the crank at the number six journal the the other folded a rod up and immediately sounded like a cement mixer. The lessons learned provided us knowledge for the next build which has held onto it’s cookies for several seasons while running the car harder and faster than it ever ran in the past.
Another of our destructo demonstrations came from a factory engine that was in the front of a sad sack Caprice station wagon slated to do battle in a demolition derby. After preparing the car per the rules of the competition, the fateful day arrived and the car was running like total ass while we were attempting to load it onto the trailer. Fed up, we matted the throttle and listened in horror as it threw, and we mean literally threw, a connecting rod straight through the oil pan like an armor piercing round.
So those are a few of the mechanical murders on our rap sheet….how ’bout your victims?
(Bangshift member Bullet posted these awesome carnage photos on our forum)
Almost all of the vehicles I have owned have been Ford’s, so as a result I have never blown a motor. In fact, some cars I have sent off to the scrap yard, I’ve pulled the motors and sold them to live on in other people’s projects.
that’s funny,the only engine i ever fragged was a ford……..guess i should have bought one from brendon m…….
Ummmm, Harbor Freight 420cc in a golf cart with the governor removed. Valves will only float so many times before the piston evaporates.
F150 with a 302″ used to pull a 5th wheel trailer over mountain grades full throttle down shifted for miles, ’till the crank broke and destroyed the block and two rods. Now sports a 351w.
454 in a buddie\’s 67 prostreet Chevelle. It had a tapping noise we could not figure. So in typical Carl fashion, we took it out and made a hard pass. We left the hood off and when he hit 3rd gear, all hell broke loose. We heard the boom and suddenly could not see for the smoke and steam. He knocked it out of gear and were rolling pretty good. You could here parts bouncing off the ground hitting the floor boards. We steered looking out the side windows. When we got it home, there were holes in the block and pan. We found pieces of piston under the carb. One of many Car stories. Thanks Carl.
74 351 in a Torino 250 + miles w/one rebuild – down shifted to second at 40 or so and dropped a valve ..keep going trying to make my date’s house (now wife)
it ran banging + smoking for mile or so , on the second hill it when BANG
and died …sold it the new owner pulled the head -nothing home in one cylinder
including the piston but the cylinder walls were not scratched !!!
Said Wife shelled my 93 Jeep 4.0 6 in a Cherokee on the highway – had pin slap etc since I had it . I really wanted to do that one myself .My son said it went so hard he thought she had hit something
Lost a rod in the lights at 135+ on a dragbike. Took out everything!! Lucky not to go down after an oil bath and heavy smoke. My son was riding and I couldnt see him…saw the lane light come on so I figured he rode through it….thankfully.
One of a pair of honda generator engines powering an endurance go kart (with governor removed). Usually run either 6 or 24 hour races, and engines will generally last pretty much a season. One seemed a bit rowdy, but had a spare (and they take about 10 minutes to swap out), so ran with it.
At the hour 3 mark or a 24 hour race it cried enough. Not entirely sure of the sequence from the debris, but crank sheared at the journal, rod had twisted and now ran parallel to the pin and the whole lot escaped through the side of the crankcase. Was remarkably quiet failure for the amount of spare parts it generated.
And not blown up as such, but the 355 SBC in my street car was consistently leaking oil (as Chevs do). I had run a small nitrous kit in it, and had a bit of fun at a dirt track speedway a few months prior – a bit of a rattle from the engine under nitrous but thought nothing of it (no controller, just backed a few degrees out of the timing before going out for fun on the bottle).
Put a compression tester on it, and number 3 cylinder has no compression.
Disassemble engine, and number 3 piston looks like it has a cracked ring land. “A bit of a dramatic loss of pressure from a cracked ring land”, thinks I. Take rings off piston, and the whole side of the piston falls off. Bore is clean as a whistle, and the only symptoms were slightly down on power and the persistent oil leak.
Turned out engine builder (professional) had put two different head styles on the engine when rebuilt, and the left hand bank was running 40 psi more compression on the tester than the right. Rebuilt engine myself (with all same parts except for a replacement second hand piston from a hot rod club mates fried drag engine) – runs like a charm.
No – because I drive in a safe and sensible manner, understand the maintenance needs of engines and have never driven anything that came from the Chevrolet factory,,,,
Twice in the same car, 1982 Mazda 323 wagon.
First was the original 1.5 4 cyl, it didn’t like high rpms and doing a handbrake turn. Not helped by a sticking clutch cable which meant when the handbrake locked the rear wheels, it also tried to stop the engine. Spat the timing chain tensioner out, which I found embedded in #3 bore and the con rod.
Replacement engine didn’t last long either, was having cooling issues just lost all it’s power. Pulled the head and found I’d split the block and cracked the head, visible cracks. The week before it died I was using 20L/100km, of water. And the oil was clean when I dumped it, as were the pistons when I pulled the head!