Following the story of the “Auction C6” Corvette that Cleetus bought at the end of last year has been kind of fun, actually. What started out as a knee-jerk impulse buy that left a strong aftertaste of buyer’s remorse in his mouth actually turned out to be much more interesting than anyone could have expected. The little red Corvette had lived one hell of a life in it’s years before winding up with a truck motor under the hood, a very built transaxle underneath and a rear differential setup that was capable of handling the grunt of a stout mill out back. So after he learned that no, the transaxle wasn’t on it’s way out of the door and that yes, it was supposed to shift like that, his attention turned to the 5.3L engine under the hood. The iron lump might not be as good as the original engine was, but there are benefits to having an iron engine…so out comes the turbocharger. On the dyno, Cleetus and his friends managed to get the C6 to crank out legitimate big-boy power…the auction mistake thumped out over 700 horsepower at the wheels. That’s flat nasty for a street car!

But let’s be honest for a second: this is a truck engine that just got force-fed like a goose destined to become foie gras. Iron block or not, when you start dumping that kind of boost into an engine without going through the ENTIRE engine, things will break and it will happen sooner than later. And boy, did it. While making some dragstrip passes, the Corvette’s engine loudly and proudly announced it’s departure in fine form, turning the engine’s internals into dust. Here’s what happened and more importantly, the aftermath.

You know what you need to do now, don’t you, Cleetus? Build a better truck block. You can do it!