A leg out of bed

[Keith Webb]

From time to time I've seen flathead V8s with nasty holes in the sump, block or both where a conrod has let go. I've also seen Chevrolet 216s with the same illness.



I remember going to look at a Morris Minor once which the seller said had a noisy engine. I could grab the crankshaft pulley and move it all around; it had a broken crankshaft! I didn't bother trying to start it.

My only direct experience with this phenomenon was a Briggs 11hp motor which suddenly went thunk. I was wondering whether it has actually happened to anyone while driving and if not too painful would you care to share your story.

[Luke R]

Back when I was at Tafe completing my mechanics trade schooling.
I was working away, when I heard the scream of a engine at full revs then bang, clunk, rattle, rattle.
There are a number of engines in frame that get striped down and reassembled and one of the holdern red motor having been assembled was started to test run it with the thottle fully open.
Big end grabbed smashed the side of the block.
No harm done to the apprentises that were beside the engine but a few red faces.

Luke

[Richard Farrant]

Hi Keith,

Not actually had a rod break while running an engine, but seen a good deal of them in my working life, from large diesels down to small petrol engines. Common ones were the Jaguar 4.2 engines in the CVR(W) Fox armoured car, they would go big time rod knocking the side out of the block. I had to rebuild a big AEC diesel once, when this happened and the block was specialist repaired, it even broke through the cylinder wall, after repair you could not see the weld it was that good.

[Howard]

When I was just a spring chicken, a one-time neighbor invited me to look at an engine that would not start. From memory it was a Bedford truck fitted with a Holden 6. After a brief search I pointed out that the starter motor was hanging by the electrical cable. Reason? It was dislodged by the big-end of #6!

[hrpearce]

Way back in my collage days I found out the hard way that Hilmin Minx's didn't like being driven at ninety miles an hour for long periods. The engine droped a valve in #3, piston wacked the valve and smashed to pieces, the conrod and gudgen then wacked a large hole in the block breaking the camshaft into three in the process. I herd a loud bang followed by a rattly sounding engine still firing on #'s 1&2 then the windscreen was blanketed in steam. When I looked under the bonet the exhaust pipe was glowing enough to see the damage.

[Mike Cecil]

Hi Keith,

Yep, had a Ford GPW engine develop an electrical problem once, just before I was to change from 2nd to 3rd, there was a very loud bang and no more go. Looked over my shoulder before pulling to the side of the road (Middleborough Rd, just north of Whithorse Rd heading north), to see a long spray of oil receeeding on the road surface in the distance and bits of metal bowling along behind.

When I opened the bonnet, I saw the generator was hanging off at a funny angle (hence the electrical problem....).

No.1 cylinder had broken the rod just below the gudgeon, and then flayed a hole through BOTH sides of the block, punching off the gennie as well as slicing the sump (shallow end at the front under No.1). Also broke the cam shaft into a few pieces.

It was 2 weeks short of Corowa, don't remember the year.

Called my father, who took a couple of hours before he could come and collect me with the tandem (the one you have) and my Toyota Ute. By that time, I had the radiator and all the peripherals out of the engine compartment. Pulled the engine when I got home, and raced a spare block up to the rebuilder to clean up and bore to match the pistons I had.

Peter G and I reassembled the new engine a day or so before Corowa, and left on time. The engine paint job wasn't quite dry when we reinstalled it. We always joked that it had been 'shovelled together' and had a baked enamel finish: from the engine heat on the way to Corowa!!

That rebuild was the most willing engine I ever had: would wind the speedo off the clock on a straight road (wasn't game to go that fast on curves: jeep handling ain't the greatest!). I still have the section of broken cam shaft on my desk: PG found it wedged in the chassis rail while we were reinstalling the new engine!

Mike C

[Keith Webb]

Interesting the way these stories are amusing in retrospect.

[Dinty]

G'day All, Earlier this year, my Isuzu 3.9d (LandRover 110) started to make a sound very much like a sticky injector on my way home from work. I did note that it wasn't blowing any white smoke etc, so a quick check when I got home, by cracking the injector lines, revealed that I could have a problem with 2 injectors??.
I made a phone call and from what I said it was deemed (without seeing/hearing it) that I could have a head gasket going between cyl's 1&2, ??they were the 2 injectors that made little or no difference to the engine idle speed, note here, there was no drop off in performance, it was still pulling like a freight train.
I set off the next morning for Dungog 85k's away, I got to approx 38k's, when all of a sudden there was a loud whooosh whooosh, bang, grrrlllrrrr, I stopped the engine within good reaction time to the racket, I lifted the bonnet, I could see nothing amiss, no oil, water steam etc etc, it just looked the same.
My wife pulled up behind me in her car and asked, 'what's wrong'!!, I don't know I replied, but I ventured to start the engine, which it did, but only to make a very loud n fast hammering sound, I switched it off fast, called the NRMA for a tilt tray tow truck.
A few days later the problem was diagnosed, No1 piston had separated under the Oil control ring, causing the piston to shatter, leaving the Gudgeon pin in the con/rod going up n down in No1 liner. The total cost for the rebuild was $8,600, I have the remains of No1 piston & liner, and you kinow the other 3 pistons and liners do not have any appreciable wear, vehicle is a 1984 model with just over 500,000k's, no-one I spoke too has ever heard of this incident in a Isuzu engine, I do have pix but I don't know how to post them in here, anyway, that is just one of many engine failures I can recall in 46 years of driving motor vehicles, anyway cheers Dennis

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Interesting the way these stories are amusing in retrospect.

Keith..
It brings back memories of days gone by..of wasted youth(Youth is ALWAYS wasted on the young)..long before there were so many rules and laws and law enforcement..
and we were racing them old flat head Ford's in beat up body's on the dirt tracks of the late 50's and early 60's...
Stock car racing ..it was called..
Not like Nascar of today.but real dirt tracks with real dirt under our nails and every where else it could get in the forms of mud or dust..
The shattered cam story from Mike C. reminds me of getting ready for a race and re jetting the carb and testing it out with some pretty fine revs when there was a sudden bang and dead silence..All the lads immediately dived under the engine to see if where the oil was coming from..I should say "Expected " oil..but there was none..Pulling the intake manifold off and tear down soon revealed the cam shaft shaft disintegrated into individual lobes..just like they were cut with a hack saw..!!
Amazing..all the lads wanted a piece ..never saw it done like that before or since.
And then there was the time the lads were revving up the old girl to hasten the engine to heat up..and the fan threw a blade under high RPM and the broken blade hit the frame and came roaring right out and hit one of the lads that was gawking into the engine compartment at the time..It caught him right at the front of his hairline fair in the middle and split his scalp front to back for about 6-7"...left a permanent scar so that his hair parted in the middle for the rest of his life..or til he went bald..but it looked pretty gruesome..
and then there was the time I was racing with one of my buddy's leaving the race track and (If you can imagine) winding up my old Mercedes 180D way past the red line when the smashing sound of metal caught my attention right at the top of my shift into second gear..The engine was still running so I shut her down and crawled under expecting to see oil but nothing.....but I got in and tried to start it and the clutch felt funny..so I got under again and looked a little closer and noticed a hole in the side of the bell housing that was not intended to be there...Turns out the throw out bearing exploded and came out through the side of the bell housing...
I drove it for about a month like that until I got a new bearing and a chance to install it..It was funny to watch her buck and jump ..in gear..to start away from a stop light or any stop for that matter..To start of..engine off ..put transmission in low gear...Ignition on..
Crank on the heaters..crank some more for the starter and give 'er some throttle and I was away,shifting the old girl by engine RPMs....to stop..gear down and kill the ignition and fire her up into neutral.
Who needed clutches in those days..
Oh wasted youth..
I relate to all the stories here so far and am waiting for the transmission..diffs...spider gears..snapped axles..and twisted drive shaft stories before I tell and more bedtime stories..

[Keith Webb]

Couldn't agree more, Alex.

Love those stories, very colourful, especially the fan blade one.

You could of course add any gear or bearing related stories - I've had trailer bearings turn into welders, then rapidly into disintegrators, and have also seen CMP transfer cases literally smashed apart through overloading or lack of lubricant.

[Rusty]

The Toy Dodge cracked a crankshaft in 2005 as we were on the way to the Victorian High Country after Corowa. The big six only has three main bearings *(up to about 2000) the crankshaft broke just to the rear of the centre bearing.
Fixed her up and she crossed Australia a couple of time since with just a tune and oil change.

Wife had a 1992 turbo diesel Rodeo, one evening I got a call to say that a there was a lose chain in the motor and it was not going any more. Drove out to have a look popped the bonnet and there was a cylinder head and a little bit of block cling to head bolts. Walked down the road and found the block and crank in about 20 pieces on examination I noticed all the big end caps were bent open in the one direction. Took it to Holden and they sent it off to a metalurgist, got a report back to say that there had been no nuts installed on one side of the caps and a new motor was on the way. The car had just cloked over a 100,000K and they coughed for the new donk.


Was waiting for the wife at Queanbeyan railway station as she had caught the country explorer rail motor to travel back from Sydney. The train was an hour late when the station master advised that it had broken down 20 k out of town. I took the service road and drove out to the train, when I got there I found the problem. The train had hit a wombat, it had punched straight through the alloy sump and all that you could see was its hairy arse sticking out anice round hole in the engine.

[Rusty]

Couldn't agree more, Alex.

Love those stories, very colourful, especially the fan blade one.

You could of course add any gear or bearing related stories - I've had trailer bearings turn into welders, then rapidly into disintegrators, and have also seen CMP transfer cases literally smashed apart through overloading or lack of lubricant

Was that the free trailer that I gave you Keefy, the one I told ya had been sitting in the paddock for the past 5 years without turning a wheel

[Robin Craig]

I was doing the final part of a very long day that included the opening of the Canadian War museum. That day had seen two mishaps already but at 1130 at night and within 2 kilometers of home base I had no premonition of any other failures.

We had unloaded a CVRT Spartan from the low boy trailer and were about to set of to the ferry that closed at 12 midnight. I had a young lad of about 16 in the commanders hatch. God only knows why, but with my Sgt Safety (what my youngest calls me) mindset I guess it wasn't surprising that I had briefed the lad that in the event of a "major event" and an order to dismount the vehicle he was to await the vehicle rolling to a stop and get out and off the vehicle quick sharp and not under any circumstances to attempt to come back for me. I would take a few moments longer to ratchet on the handbrake and throw the battery master.

So off we set tooling up through the gears on a summers night when all of a sudden black smoke appeared from the engine louvres on my right in massive volumes accompanied by a horrible rattling in the engine bay. Being a gasoline ( aka petrol ) powered engine I got in the i/c and told the lad that we were in trouble and to abandon the vehicle.

Rapid downshifting and brakes brought the vehicle to a halt.

In perfect fashion the young lad was out of the hatch and down the deck stepping over my head in an easy stride and onto the road as I threw the master battery switch and put the handbrake on and also alighted in jack rabbit fashion.

After waiting for flames which never appeared I ventured back to the vehicle

Opening the engine decks and peering in with a flashlight revealed a massive puddle of oil around the base of the engine. Inspection in the shop subsequent to the late night recovery showed that it had thrown a rod and smashed the oil pan.

To this day that experience has tempered my enthusiasm of driving gasoline powered armoured vehiciles when sitting beside the engine. I have a very hard time driving our CVRT Sabre as it is not easy to get out of.

Recently while investigating a fuel problem with our CVRW Fox we found that the bodger who "restored" the vehicle, whose fine handy work and attention to detail I have been combating for a while now to get it sorted, had left one thread on a fuel line nut as the only attachment to a stripped thread on a fuel selector tap. That sent a shiver down my spine and is the reason that one is coming fully apart before it turns into a Ronson recreation and kills someone.

R

[Chuck Anderson]

I was on the way home from a parade in my M20 armored car and pulling a steep hill when my #3 piston detonated. It blew shrapnal out of the bottom of the oil pan (and marking the spot for posterity). Scarey for me, but nowhere near what you guys are talking about!

[Mike Cecil]

Robin,

Your (potentially) wayward petrol stories remind me of part of an interview I did with an Armoured Corps officer, wherein he related how a fellow 2Lt had climbed into a Centurion driver's position to move the vehicle (late 1950s). It had a petrol leak, where a fair amount of the said combustible had gathered in the lower hull. He hit the starter, and the vehicle erupted in a flash of flame, the force of which lifted him bodily from the drivers seat. He impacted the edge of the hatch opening (he had the seat in the down position). Result: some burns but very severe skull damage. Scratch one promising career.

You are so right to never underestimate the power of MOGAS!

Mike C