A little while ago, Hot Rod Garage’s Tony Angelo got a swift kick in the kiddies when the 340 in his Dodge Demon went full-stop during a cam break-in and all but locked up. Instead of bringing his muscle car out of a slumber and into glory, he was now facing the possibility that the numbers-matching 340 was lunched…not a pleasant place to be. But what stopped the motor? A number of issues could have struck during the cam break-in. The motor had been sitting idle for give-or-take eighteen years, and failure could have occurred at a number of points in the rotating assembly or oiling system. Even the timing chain could be suspect. Either way, the only way to know if the block was wasted or just a few parts needed to be replaced would be an autopsy, so on this episode of Hot Rod Garage, Angelo and Lucky tear into the small-block to see exactly what happened. It’s not pleasant work, but only two outcomes can occur: either he finds out what failed or he confirms that it is time for a 408ci stroker motor. Check out the grisly details below:
-Spoiler Alert-
In case you can’t watch the video, an oiling problem resulted in a lower end bearing seizing and rotating around the connecting rod base. Damage to crank journal and rod mainly. Top end is fine, block is fine. Off to machine shop for repairs and upgrades to oiling system.
Though the cause of the oil starvation was not found, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was related to the Fram oil filter. Utter junk!