Worst blown engine

enjenjo · April 19, 2006, 11:20:36 AM

We had a Willys pickup with a 427 chevy in it, drag car.On a test and tune day, coming off the line, the nitrous button stuck. The engine proceeded to self destruct, pieces flying everywhere. When it finally stopped, the ends of the crank were all that was left. The rods were gone, along with most of the pistons, the cam, pushrods, the entire center of the block, both heads broken, intake cracked, about all we could salvage was the carbs.

What was your worst blown motor?

EMSjunkie · April 19, 2006, 01:11:36 PM

327 in a stock car.
broke the head off of #4 intake valve at about 6800 RPM.

had a hole big enough in the cylinder wall to stick your fist into.

bent the #4 rod at 90*.

bad thing about it.......I was leading when it let go. :x

but it sure made purdy smoke.

Vance

phat46 · April 19, 2006, 03:56:15 PM

Briggs and Stratton 3.5 horse on a mini bike, spun it backwards using starting fluid and broke the cam...

Guess i'm not hard enough on my stuff!!!!

DRD57 · April 19, 2006, 04:00:01 PM

Quote from: "phat46"Briggs and Stratton 3.5 horse on a mini bike, spun it backwards using starting fluid and broke the cam... Guess i'm not hard enough on my stuff!!!!

I blew one of those up once. Figured out how to put a motorcycle carb on it instead of the lawnmower carb. It would really rev right up until it threw the rod. The rod looked like shattered glass.

DRD57 · April 19, 2006, 04:07:07 PM

Quote from: "enjenjo"What was your worst blown motor?

There was the aforementioned mini bike. I spun a rod bearing in a 440 once but I don't count that one as blown up. Then there was a 440 that the cam broke right behind the second to last bearing leaving cylinders 7 and 8 without any valve action. While that one was certainly wounded, it still ran. As hard as I am on my stuff, I've been pretty lucky that I haven't scattered more of them on the ground.

The worst one I've seen was that Top Fuel HEMI that Carl showed us in Vegas. The block, crank and rods were all bent and melted together in one recognizable but unsalvagable lump.

58 Yeoman · April 19, 2006, 04:49:32 PM

I had a VW engine once that the crank cracked in half, and still ran. The only engine I ever blew. Did miss a shift once on a 59 Ford, and cracked the trans case all the way to the mounting hole.

entodad · April 19, 2006, 05:03:32 PM

390 ford FE in a 1975 pickup truck. I was tooling down the road at about 120 mph when it pitched the back two pistons out of the block (through the side) and onto the pavement. The cam shaft broke in two places, the valves were forced into the head sideways (I never quite figgured how that happened) and it ripped the back of the oil pan off. Crazy thing was that the engine would still run on the front six cylinders....There was nothing except for the distributor and water pump that was salvageable.

Before that engine, I had a 360 in the same truck and it fell apart in much the same fashion, but it just simply quit when it started pitching parts...
After those break ups, I put a 352 into the truck...it was so sick that it couldn't tear itself up.....

I have yet to detonate a chevy....though I have really abused some of them.
Doug

Quote from: "enjenjo"We had a Willys pickup with a 427 chevy in it, drag car.On a test and tune day, coming off the line, the nitrous button stuck. The engine proceeded to self destruct, pieces flying everywhere. When it finally stopped, the ends of the crank were all that was left. The rods were gone, along with most of the pistons, the cam, pushrods, the entire center of the block, both heads broken, intake cracked, about all we could salvage was the carbs.

What was your worst blown motor?

Sean · April 19, 2006, 05:46:42 PM

Stock Chevy 350 started knocking a few miles from home. I kept driving it and about 1/4 mile from the house I could feel it starting to sieze. I went ahead and floored it, and about two seconds later she blew. Sounded kind of like somebody hit the engine with a sledgehammer...

Rod through the side of the block, crank broke in two pieces, cam came out in three pieces.

donsrods · April 19, 2006, 07:44:04 PM

I don't know if any of you have seen it, but there is a video on some websites of a drag motorcycle taking off. The engine blows a piston right through the head, and takes the drivers hand right off. I couldn't even watch it all.

That has to be the worst blown engine ever.

Don

34ford · April 19, 2006, 09:14:30 PM

Not mine but one that was on one of the car forums but can't remember which one. Split right down the middle. Think it might have been to much NOS.

nzsimon · April 20, 2006, 04:48:20 AM

Bit of JB Weld be as good as new

35WINDOW · April 20, 2006, 09:52:22 AM

Back when I was an idiot kid (back when?) I borrowed a friends '69 GTO Convertible (400 cid) for a Date. He didn't tell me, but the Tach read exactly 1/2 of true RPM-being an idiot kid, I couldn't understnad why it wouldn't reach 4,000 RPM

-brought it back, with a BAD rod knock.

I worked for Chevrolet for a while, and a fellow Rep had a beautiful '66 Caprice two door (Marina Blue, white stripe, Factory 396, 4 Speed). Bought it for my wife, within two weeks she had broken the Crank in two-

My Brother-in-Law and myself built a front engine Dragster with a blown 327, spit a Connecting Rod at the night Drags-oiled the right Slick rolled the Car (I wasn't driving

)

Frank Jonkman · April 20, 2006, 10:47:39 AM

A while back, I used to run a nostalgia funny car.
Worst explosion I had was in St. Loius, had a mag go bad off the line and with a motherload of nitro going into the deal, blew the blower right off the top, splitting it and the intake into several pieces and sending the body (71 Mustang) into the air.
Got the car stopped in short order, tried to put the fire out (track guys finally did) and looked back at what was left of the whole deal.
A very expensive weekend....

dabirdguy · April 24, 2006, 03:02:29 PM

We were street racing a big block Chevy when I was in the Marines.

396 Punched 40 over --dual quads -- headers -- cam-- solids...etc. Runing av-gas in it.

Soem of the guys were doing some maintenance and lost the head bolts. Sent a guy out to buy some.

The clown went to the local ACE hardware store and bought some soft steel bolts and put them in without telling us where he got them...

Blew the head clean off.....thru the hood and across a street during a race that night. Bolts and pushrods were flying like shrapnel.

No one got hurt UNTIL we found out what happened.

EMSjunkie · April 24, 2006, 09:27:50 PM

Quote from: "dabirdguy"when I was in the Marines.

.

Semper Fi.

what was your M.O.S.?

tell us a little about yourself.
welcome to our board. sit a spell, learn a little, teach a little.

Vance