Engine Blow-Ups

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Interesting reading about various violent deaths of engines. I once grenaded engine in my 1969 Jeep plow truck it was equipped with Buick 350 V8, plowing along in deep snow 1st gear, low range when all of a sudden a very loud bang, then near total silence. Only the faint ticking of hot metal.

Turn key to try and restart, hoping it was just a loud backfire, nothing. Open the hood the wrist pin and top half of the connecting rod were laying on one frame rail while on the other side the bottom of the connecting rod was sitting on the other frame rail. A large puddle of oil and antifreeze was forming on the ground under the truck.

When we drag the critter in shop and after stripping the engine of all accessories to be installed on the replacement and engine. Pulling the engine then revealed the full extent of the damage :

• Hole big enough look through from one side to the other.
• Two inch slice cut out of the oil pan under number one cylinder
• When the distributor was pulled as a possible spare the drive gear had been smashed off.
• The cam shaft was broken into four pieces.
• Camshaft timing gear was smashed.
• Number one piston was missing, nothing but little bits of aluminum.

What I surmise happened was that a valve on the number one cylinder had stayed open the following collision with the piston was catastrophic, resulting in the piston disintegrating. Which was followed by the wrist pin and connecting rod making one or more revolutions acting as a sledge hammer on the inside of the engine. Before leaving the engine a low velocity.

The picture which I just took is of the two bits of that engine that I set on the shelf in garage as mementos.

Cheer Phil

The Jeep went on to plow for many more years with a junkyard engine replacement. In fact it was in use up until two or three years ago.