What was your worst engine blow up?

[Unchained]

I have broke rockers, valve springs, and spin bearings but never actually had pieces fly out. I was with a friend when his 454 chevy dropped a valve. A connecting rod went through the oil pan and dumped the hot oil all over the bottom of the boat. I heard a guy in our Hot Boat Assn with a blown 392 hemi hydro had the block break in half. Another friend had his chevy diesel engine block break in half and actually shit pieces of the cam out on the road.

[Tinkerboater]

I broke a crank in half and that tore #2 webing out of the block. only thing I salvaged out of that engine was the heads and the intake and carb.

[schiada96]

I had a 67 fastback mustang in high school. I thought I would make it fast. My first mod was a B&M trans with a super hs converter. Next mod was 4.56 gears. Then I thought I'd build a motor, 289 the stock rods didn't take the rpm, It let go at 95 hard on the gas, oil every where almost lost it, pretty wild

[mario]

Back in the 80's I had a 69 GTO judge witch I worked up real good and had a 3000 stall converter in it. well some one talked me into removing a servo spring for a harder shift. Well it shiftedso hard it ripped the block apart around the motor mountabout a nine inch chunk was ripped from the block.
Bad advice...

[wsm9808]

Had a 68 Firbird running low 13s in street trim and was street racing with a bunch of guys just outside of town. In top of forth gear the engine started sending internal parts flying all over the road and then siezed up which caused the driveshaft to snap the front u-joint and the car pole vaulted. Witnesses say the ass end jumped 6 feet off the ground, but it felt like 20 feet from inside the car and made one of those sounds you never forget for the rest of your life. Car filled up with smoke and I could not see while I was trying to get it shut down in its own oil slick, It was a very squirly ride. When it finally stopped I jumped out because I thought it was on fire b/c of all the smoke.
A few seconds later we get the hood open and some guy finds a mangled rod cap on the inner fender skirt and grabs it and ends up burning the crap out of his hand. Cost me a motor, trans input shaft, driveshaft, and rear end yoke. But no one got hurt so it was a good day.

[Unchained]

WSM9808, That's a great story.
I found this pic out of an old Hot Rod mag.
http://www.childsdale-ind-prop.com/engineblowup.jpg
In the pic the oil pan is in front of the RR tire and the crank and entire rotating assy is on the ground under the block.

[rrrr]

How about the two engine failures Eddie Hill experienced in his TF dragster that led to his retirement? In both cases the entire crank, rod, and piston assembly was ripped from the engine at speed, looked like a hell of a blast.
The guy that did the machine work on my engine has some photos on the wall in his shop of cars he has built. Among the pictures are a few where the owner got a little bit too liberal with the juice.
One Mustang had thrown the crank snout through the radiator and broke the rest of the crank in four pieces. The Genie got out of the bottle on that day!

[spectras only]

Unchained ,that BRHF car looks like a 1930's Fiat Topolino rolltop or a Bantam.It's amazing what people squeeze in such small cars.Those cars made for 700cc engines.The Ford Anglia was better suited for V-8's.Chryslers PT cruiser is an Anglia retro in my opinion,and Iwonder when people start to put some serious power in that one.The prowler was a waste with the V-6 !
[This message has been edited by spectras only (edited February 10, 2002).]

[not guilty]

My worst engine blow-up was the last one in the NOT GUILTY river cruiser,then the one before that,then the one before that .....wait a minute , I've never had a good engine blow up, has anybody? NG

[boat030]

i had a good engine blow up. final round of my last race i won with an oil pan full of what used to be the #8 rod. i'll take a blown engine win over a loss and no engine damage any day.

[LeE ss13]

1991 NJBA Nationals in my old Flatbottom. Racing in the MPH brackets was tough against jets so I kept using a lower and lower gear to accelerate as well as they did. When I put a 6% gear in on the first round, the boat left well but when the engine went into the high 7000 rpm range at the finish, it let go. It basically blew the back of the engine off, (which is the front in a flatbottom). I didn't have a whirlaway in those days so it slammed me forward onto the steering wheel and came to wild and sudden stop. The rear end of the camshaft came rolling forward on the floor as a guy on a jet ski came up and asked if I could fix it for the next round. I said, "What for?", he said because the other guy red lighted!!!!
Just my luck...
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LeE ss13

[Essex502]

Worst was back in '74 when my Trans-Am was at old Irwindale Raceway. Modified 455 with cam, headers, 12:1 pistons, Holley 780 dp, 9" converter, A1 tranny, 4.10 gears and 10" Firestone #9's. (ring any bells for you old timers?) Just laid down a 12 second pass and lost 5 rods THRU the oil pan in the lights. Car danced left - right - left (shittin' and pissin' pants at same time) but stayed on all 4 but ending up in the sand. Had to be towed home that night 40+ miles.
Moral of the story:
1) Don't drive your hotrod to the track.
2) Use forged rods in the bottom end.
Next time out - brand new engine professionally built by a knowledgable Pontiac builder - broke the snout of the crank off and sent the harmonic balance bouncing around.
Moral of the story:
1) Don't believe the experts always now the most or build the best.
Next time out - perfection! That car was street drivable and finally ran 10.88 at 128 back in 1975.
Sure was fun in the old days.
Several 23109(a)'s and 23109(b)'s later I retired.

[LeE ss13]

Essex502 ...
Sounds familiar.. What color was the car? Did you ever attend PCC? Were you the Pontiac that pulled the wheels and took out the staging lights? I ran a brown 64 Plymouth "REVOLVER" all through the 70s.
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LeE ss13

[Essex502]

Originally posted by LeE ss13:
Essex502 ...
Sounds familiar.. What color was the car? Did you ever attend PCC? Were you the Pontiac that pulled the wheels and took out the staging lights? I ran a brown 64 Plymouth "REVOLVER" all through the 70s.
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LeE ss13
Well...I do have a photo with the front wheels a couple of inches off the ground but not much more than that. There were two red Trans-Ams running during mid 70's and Irwindale - mine and the one run by H-O Racing Specialties. Craig's was set up for NHRA stock class and mine was the test mule for our Super Stock Pontiacs. And no, I never took out the lights.

[wsm9808]

Wow, Essex502 another Pontiac racer! I ran my 68 firebird and a 72 firebird back in the mid 70s early 80s. Everyone around here thought I was nuts running Pontiac, but after I figured them out it was easy to take a mild 455 into the mid 11s. Gave those chevy/ford guys fits at the friday night grudge races(remember those). Motors were everywhere, you could go the junk yard and pick up a shortblock for 50.00 bucks, and throw it together with new rings and bearings and big cam and bolt on the set of 70 model heads I ported. Then thrash it for a year or two till the skirts broke off or the cast rods snapped. Cool thing about Pontiacs, They always went out in a blaze of glory. http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by wsm9808 (edited February 12, 2002).]

[Essex502]

Originally posted by wsm9808:
Wow, Essex502 another Pontiac racer! I ran my 68 firebird and a 72 firebird back in the mid 70s early 80s. Everyone around here thought I was nuts running Pontiac, but after I figured them out it was easy to take a mild 455 into the mid 11s. Gave those chevy/ford guys fits at the friday night grudge races(remember those). Motors were everywhere, you could go the junk yard and pick up a shortblock for 50.00 bucks, and throw it together with new rings and bearings and big cam and bolt on the set of 70 model heads I ported. Then thrash it for a year or two till the skirts broke off or the cast rods snapped. Cool thing about Pontiacs, They always went out in a blaze of glory. http://free.***boat.net/ubb/smile.gif
[This message has been edited by wsm9808 (edited February 12, 2002).]
We finally figured how to get a reliable 600 or so hp out of a Pontiac motor. We used the forged rods made by Pontiac from 1958 - 1962. We coulda' used the super duty rods but at that time $60 per rod BEFORE machining was out of our price range. As long as we kept the RPM at 6000 or less they lived. We did do a little creative stuff though like using a 428 crank in a 0.030 over block that resulted in 440 cu in. This provide a great performance boost over the 455 setup. I even tried a VERY rare Mickey Thompson cross ram with two Holley 660's. Ran terrible. Not enough RPM to make it work. Also, tried a EXTREMELY RARE prototype tunnel ram with the same 660's - same result. Our best performance came with a very strange custom ground Sig Erson cam, Edelbrock Torker manifold and 1000cfm Carter Thermoquad. Coupled with a lightened 74 `Bird (down to a svelte 3300 lbs) we ran consistent sub 11.00 runs. Shocked the hell out of a lot of those Ford and Chevy racers on Saturday night at the local street races. With today's technology we could probably make another 100 or so horsepower with what we know.
Memories.......

[Essex502]

wsm9808: I just checked your profile and you're from Texas. My Firebird ended up in Texas - sold to a John Clegg who was going to race it there. Every hear of him?

[LeE ss13]

Today's Pontiac Trivia questions ....
1. What year did Pontiac have adjustable rocker arms on their production V8s?
2. Where was the Clutch and Transmission on a '63 Pontiac Tempest?
3. Where was the Torque Converter on the same year with an Automatic?
4. In the 60s, Pontiac made a 4 and 6 cylinder. What was unusual about them?
5. Prior to 1964, on a V8, how did oil get the rocker arms?
6. What part of the country were most of the '64 GTOs sold.(kind of a given)
(some errors may occur due to my advanced years and foggy memory)
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LeE ss13

[MrHavasuCat]

I had a 64 GTO in higschool. The thing was totally restored, had tri-power and a m-22 tranny. Man I wish I would have kept that car.

[Essex502]

Originally posted by LeE ss13:
Today's Pontiac Trivia questions ....
1. What year did Pontiac have adjustable rocker arms on their production V8s?
2. Where was the Clutch and Transmission on a '63 Pontiac Tempest?
3. Where was the Torque Converter on the same year with an Automatic?
4. In the 60s, Pontiac made a 4 and 6 cylinder. What was unusual about them?
5. Prior to 1964, on a V8, how did oil get the rocker arms?
6. What part of the country were most of the '64 GTOs sold.(kind of a given)
(some errors may occur due to my advanced years and foggy memory)
--------
LeE ss13
I have to admit that I didn't get into Pontiacs until I bought the `bird in 1973 (`74 model) so I can't answer those questions! We pretty much raced only the `74 bird, a `68 goat, a `67 bird (b/sa & c/sa - nhra record holder for a while) and a `70 goat (ss/ia).

[Unchained]

I had a 68 GTO when I was 17 years old in 1972. What a fun street racing car that was. It started out with a 400 Pontiac engine, Then I put in a 427 corvette engine, Then ended up with a 455 Pontiac engine that outperformed the others. Probably a dream car to me now would be a 69 Judge.

[wsm9808]

I've been gone for a couple of days, But no, I dont know of John Clegg. Texas is a big state and most of the population is in central, East and South. I live way out in the west desert in Midland (home town of George Bush).
I miss my old Pontiac days so I started building another street/stip car to to go out and beat up on those pesky rice rides that go buzzing by my shop all day. I've been working on it for about 2yrs now and just about ready to go. Did a full frame off restoration. Engine goes in this weekend. Check out the pics on my webshots page. Its a Camaro, but maybe it will be as fun as the Firebird was 25 years ago. http://community.webshots.com/user/wsm9808
[This message has been edited by wsm9808 (edited February 14, 2002).]

[wsm9808]

#4 Overhead camed
#5 rocker arm studs

[Craig]

OK, I'm a Buick Stage 1 guy, but I'll try a few.
#3 It used a rear transaxle set up I believe.
#4 Overhead cam, 6 banger used until 1969 in the firebirds with a powerpack type deal if I recall.

[LeE ss13]

Originally posted by Craig:
OK, I'm a Buick Stage 1 guy, but I'll try a few.
#3 It used a rear transaxle set up I believe.
#4 Overhead cam, 6 banger used until 1969 in the firebirds with a powerpack type deal if I recall.
Yes ... the transaxle was kind of a Corvair type deal but the manual trans had the clutch on the engine and the auto had the torque converter sticking out the back of the transaxle.
I remember seeing a New 1967 Le Mans (Tempest) with the OHC 6 cylinder. It came with a Quadrajet 4 barrel.
[This message has been edited by LeE ss13 (edited February 15, 2002).]
[This message has been edited by LeE ss13 (edited February 15, 2002).]

[Kurtis500]

First time out with a blower on my 383 chrysler in my flat. Took the scoop off to check accelerator pump operation.. left them off but screwed the nuts back on the studs. Ran it about a mile, turned around then BANG..clank clank clank. PO'ed and worried the whole trip home to find out what happened. Took it apart and found out one of the nuts unscrewed itself and fell into the carb, I hit the gas and the blower ate it up, cracking the case all the way down the side, wiping out the rotors, marked up the intake valve and bent the pushrod, trashed the top of the piston and lodged in the exhaust valve breaking stuff there too. All for a minute or two of fun.. Just got the blower from Littlefields too..
Moral of the story. PUT A SCREENED GASKET ON TOP OF THE BLOWER!!! $3.00 part would have saved me from the damage a .05 cent part did.

[DEL51]

My worst engine experience had the lifter stabilizer bar break and the roller lifter ground out the lifter bore.I also had a valve crack. The fuel regulator adjust nut backed off causing a lean condition and the stainless intake valve face cracked.A little piece of the valve was pounded between the chamber and piston then exited to back out the intake and wound up in a neighboring cylinder.While doing this at 5000 rpm, it caused the intake valve to hang open momentarily.This caused a very loud BOOOM.I was not using a pop valve in the intake,but I think the explosion exited through the exhaust because no damage was done to the blower or carbs.The engine was still running but made a severe lower end noise.The explosion was heard 1 mile away by my friend who was launching. he towed me in.After I had the boat on the trailer,I fired it up and placed wet towels over the collecters to hear the engine.I heard a terrible knockng sound.I thought the crank and rods were in bad shape. This is when I started my 572 project.Over the winter the damaged engine was inspected.The damage was to the connectng rod bearings.The slop caused all the noise.The rods and crank were magnafluxed, ok.I was surprised there wasn't more damage, new valves, and bearings.2 pistons were nicked up but still good and the merlin iron head had scratches on the flat portion of the combustion chamber. I now have 2 engines,1 pump, and looking for a faster hull.

[Unchained]

Del, Interesting story. Was the roller lifter tie bar that broke a horizontal bar type or a vertical bar type? So your blower manifold doesn't have a popoff? niether does mine. When I bought the competition manifold from Hampton he said that by the time a popoff lifts, the damage is already done so he doesn't use them. That's amazing that the explosion flattened the rod bearing.

[DEL51]

The tie bar was a verticle,crane,and it was a 1 hour motor. This engine was built out east and dynoed.I was inexperienced in valve train geometry and they educated me for $13,000.00.I bought a popvalve kit from Jim Oddy and put it in this last summer. The only thing the pop valve may do is save the carbs when a cold start backfire happens.I think these pop valves would be an interesting topic for posting.Maybe some of the more experienced guys can give their opinion.

[Kurtis500]

Speaking of pop-off valves. I backfired through the blower at about 2000 rpm, after taking the motor down I spun the rotors around and could feel them slightly rub the case in one area of the turn. I had a pop-off valve, but it probably went off only after the force pushed the rotors up in the case, then went sideways out the relief.