A leg out of bed

[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