Last night I went to my buddy's track (private airstrip) to do some racing with a few other choice invites (about 15 cars total). After winning a few races against a few late model Camaro SS's, and a few n02 pumped imports, I was having a good night.

Then things went south. Another guy with a white Honda SI hatch wanted to race. I agreed and we lined up.

I completely smoked him out of the hole and never looked back. Then 100ft before the finish (I still had a commanding lead), I hear a quick noise (can't remember what it sounded like), then the motor quits. I look in the rear view to see if I was still going to win and all I can see is white smoke.

I ended up winning, but I am fairly sure the motor is toast. There is water/anti-freeze/oil mix coming out of the muffler and the dipstick looks like swiss-mix.

-Best case: I popped a head gasket or cracked a head allowing the oil and water to mix.

-Worst case: I tossed a rod and it windowed the cylinder allowing the water to get into the oil. The motor will not turn over, so its either hydro-locked or I tossed a rod and everything is binded up.

I am sad that I am only weeks from the season opening, but not so much about the engine itself. It wasn't like I spent a whole lot of money on this engine. The crank is cast iron China crap, the rods/heads are stock (w/big valves), and the pistons are cast aluminum stock replacements. This motor only has alittle more than a 4000 miles on it, almost 90% at WOT while drag racing. So it isn't like this motor owed me anything. Still, it was good running motor.

We ended up having to push the car outside the gates before everything got locked up. I got home late after waiting 2 hours for the tow truck outside the gates. To say the least I was VERY tired.

Once I have time, I'll yank the motor and see what I am left with, and then go from there. I have already started on the next motor, but wasn't planning on finishing/installing it for sometime. So depending on the damage, looks like I might have to move up the timetable for the Twin-Turbo project. Which would also mean the car will sit for awhile.

Its funny, I have been tossing around the idea of buying a car trailer and towing the Z with my Blazer to the track for racing, unload the car, etc.

Call the car a trailer queen or whatever, but last night BLEW. I always end up bringing another car with me anyway because the Z is just a two seater. So, now everyone will ride in the Blazer and the Z will get trailered to the track.

I'd be interested if the Chinese crap let go or the GM stuff let go. You can't see the sides of the block or oil pan to see if a rod let go?

From your description I can just about guarantee you are missing a cylinder wall or one has a nice big crack :(
Piston or rod, probably a piston which may have been a lower end failure or it could have ate a valve which took the piston,,, either way my money says it ain't a head gasket or cracked head,,,
bummer graemlins/sad.gif

hey did you ever happen to dyno that motor? My 383 is going to be running stock gm heads like that for a few months and wanted to know it would be making...

Originally posted by bluerebl:
looks like I might have to move up the timetable for the Twin-Turbo project.Breakage is reason for improvement. smile.gif

That sux man! Sorry to hear it.

Originally posted by Chirp08:
hey did you ever happen to dyno that motor? My 383 is going to be running stock gm heads like that for a few months and wanted to know it would be making... Sorry, no. A couple of guys did a DD2000 run for me. http://www.chevelles.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/4/23595.html?

-------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the support guys. Mike (Wolfplace), I figured as much too. The thing that kinda sucks that I didn't mention before is I have a decent attachment to that 350 cylinder block. It was the engine that was in my old '69 Chevelle when I first bought it, I was 18 at the time.

Although it wasn't original to the car, its VIN told me it was from a '74 Chevy Van. We did a cam swap, headers, intake, and carb on a motor with an unknown amount of miles. Then with a 3.08 open rear w/slicks it ran high 13's. :D

Ever since then we called it the "magic" block. After it finally died in 1999 I rebuild it as a 383 and since has been a 'mule' for more than a few of my cars/truck, had everything from stock heads, to AFR 210's, to Sportsman II's. Those cars/truck have come and gone, but still have have the "magic" block.

I swore to my oldest friends involved with my projects since High School that I'd never get rid of it, even if I had to sleeve all 8 cylinders to keep it running. It current has a 0.030" overbore. Looks like I might be powdercoating it and making a coffee table with it afterall. :(

Cable,when you play,you're gonna pay. Sux, but hey, its the nature of performance in the big picture. **hit happens, especially when you're reefin'on it.

Smile 'bro. Your attachment is artificial, it is only a casting! It would be handsome coffee table or wine rack.

DRIVE ON!

I had an explosion like that 2 years ago. Except i was just crusing down a side street and CLONK CLONK CLONK. The motor died and i didnt even try to turn it over. It was a fresh 4 bolt block 350 bottom end and brand new sportsman II's. It ended up being a valve got stuck somehow???? There was an exaust leak that i couldnt ever find/ seal up. Well it appeared that the last header bolt thread on my sportsmanII's was drilled and tapped just a hair off so when i thought the header was tight it wasnt, but it was close. Cold air got it, warped a valve, vlave got stuck, CLONK CLONK CLONK, and the entire motor was scrap, block and all!! Talk about a downer, i was 19 years old and this was probably 350 miles into my first performance motor! So i hear ya man, it sucks. But that twin turbo deal sounds like it may cheer you up!! Hell it would cheer me up :D

Originally posted by Wolfplace:
From your description I can just about guarantee you are missing a cylinder wall or one has a nice big crack :(
Piston or rod, probably a piston which may have been a lower end failure or it could have ate a valve which took the piston,,, either way my money says it ain't a head gasket or cracked head,,,
bummer graemlins/sad.gif Right you are Mike.

All of these pics are of the parts as taken, untouched. I am was suprised to see the other pistons so clean.

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/bluerebl/hole1.jpg

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/bluerebl/rod2.jpg

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/bluerebl/valley1.jpg

Ouch, Cable! graemlins/sad.gif
Looks like you've got a new coffee table...from what I see, too much damage in #8 to sleeve.
I would guess steam/water cleaned off the carbon from the other pistons.
Are these hyper pistons? Looks like that one shattered...

Wow! I am still curious as to what started the whole explosion!? :confused: Can you salvage anything?

The pistons were Dynagear hypers (0.030" overbore).

I am hoping that I might be able to sleeve, I guess we'll see.

The crank and the remaining 7 pistons/rods look great.

Oh the cam got smacked too because its broken between 7 and 8.

The head chamber is mostly untouched. The valves maybe another story.

#8 intake pushrod was bent and broken, and the hyd lifter 'plunger' was in the lifter valley.

Here's a pic of the bent rod:

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/bluerebl/rod3.jpg

Wow! :eek:

That sucks, sorry man. :(

and you were saying about the chinese crank? :D

Check your valves out really good, they may be slightly bent after smacking the piston. Dig a hole for that block and have a proper burial. What rpms did she let go at? Bob

When I disintegrated an engine 3 years ago, detonation was the culprit. Inspect the other pistons for damage to the top ring land. If any show any sige of collapse, detonation could have been the cause.

When mine went, I found the #1 rod wrapped around the #2 rod. It looked like a giant fishing hook smile.gif .

Originally posted by bluerebl:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Wolfplace:
From your description I can just about guarantee you are missing a cylinder wall or one has a nice big crack :(
Piston or rod, probably a piston which may have been a lower end failure or it could have ate a valve which took the piston,,, either way my money says it ain't a head gasket or cracked head,,,
bummer graemlins/sad.gif Right you are Mike.

</font>[/QUOTE]=
Damn,, sometimes it sucks to be right :(
The valves in that cylinder will almost certainly be bent & for the price of a decent set of rods & crank I wouldn't mess with what you have, it just ain't worth it.

My advice,, have some of them old friends over, open a keg & give it a decent burial :D

Put up a cross saying
"RIP ole magic block" graemlins/beers.gif

Originally posted by baddbob71:
What rpms did she let go at? Bob Around 5000, nothing crazy. I rarely had her above 5500.

--------------------------------------------------

Well I ended up looking at the head alittle closer and the #8 exhaust valve is bent ever so slightly.

I doubt it had anything to do with the engine blowing, but I also think I had blown head gaskets on both banks between the two center cylinders (3/5 and 2/4). You can see the burn marks on the block too on the first post w/pictures.

Here's what the head gaskets looked like on both sides of the gasket, on both banks. The burn marks are on the block (as seen in #2 pic) and heads too.

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/bluerebl/headgasket1.jpg

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/bluerebl/blowngasket.jpg

What do you guys think? Cracked heads? They are early '74 '882' heavy castings.

Thanks!!

cable thats what happens with hypertec pistons they shatter into a million pieces, any was i had a 400 do the same thing and the cylinder looked worse than yours ,i had it sleeved and poured the block and it has made many passes since then at the strip so maybe you can save yours to

Maybe a head gasket or cracked head leaked water into the combustion chamber and hydrolocked the motor, shattering the piston!? I was just talking to a friend about using ARP head bolts instead of stock for this very reason. I would never have thought there could be a problem with 17 head bolts(stock), but he was saying how his on his dad's 383 they have had to retorque them twice, and on his other motor's with ARP bolts they havent needed retorqued at all.

WOW, where did you buy those fancy Z beam rods?? Sorry to poke fun, but if you can't laugh at it whats the use?? Hopefully you'll be able to salvage something..

Scott

Wow..thats some pretty crazy carnage..haven't seen anything like that in awhile!

oooooo
:(

Well... you still have 7 left... graemlins/angry.gif

That rod would make a nice office paper weight :(

Originally posted by cromedss:
That rod would make a nice office paper weight :( Its funny, cause that's what I have already done with it.

My wife thinks I am nuts.....

JUNK

Too bad . . . :( I think the head gasket was unrelated personally. I did one similar (not as bad) several years ago and a cracked cylinder wall was the culprit -- I was running TRW forged at the time and they didn't come apart, just deformed.

If you have a wall of shame like I do you can at least add that rod to your collection of broken race stuff. That will make a nice conversation piece . . .

So far I have a KB piston, bent exhaust valve, and a toasted ring gear on my wall. All from separate and unique fiascos . . . LOL

As they used to say at the beginning of the 6 Million Dollar Man . . . we can rebuild him . . . we have the technology.

been there done that...I mean exactly...same missing cylinder and piston...smae "s" rod. Mine was caused by a piston to valve contact. I was using good forged pistons and eagle rods....so when everything comes to a sudden stop, even 'good' parts will bust

Originally posted by bigjimzlll:
Mine was caused by a piston to valve contact. I am almost 99% sure that's what happened here too.

From one of my fav movies....Animal House with John Belushi......

"My advice to you is to start drinking heavily!"

Bummer, but you can and will recover.
I love the early Datsun Z cars.

Ron

Something a little funny but off topic. My father had a 67 corvette 350 sb 4spd and the car ran pretty damn strong but was getting a little tired. After swapping in a brand new LT1 350 motor we went through the old motor. Well the old motor had two totally different size heads on it (one had 1.94 the other 2.02 intake valves). You could see the oil pan past a couple of the pistons from the top of the motor. The cam was damn near wiped and the thing still ran strong when we replaced it. I've never seen anything like it, go figure.... graemlins/clonk.gif

racing friend always tells me
if you ain't breakin' then you're fakin'
even the best built stuff breaks

Digging up a really old topic of mine.....

I went ahead and dropped off the 'magic' block at the machine shop. They say it appears to be totally salvageable, but they want to mag it first just to make sure that the distruction didn't crack the block anywhere else.

The block is already 0.030", might get away with .040, but prob will have to go 0.060". Its a 2-bolt block, but I think I'll have the mains studded and then line honed just for good measure.

Pic's don't work for me??

Pic's don't work for me??


Yeah, sorry about that.

Link the link in my sig, on page 4 there are pics of the carnage.

Impressive car, Cable..... :thumbsup:

Impressive car, Cable..... :thumbsup:

Thanks, I have managed to kill my first torque converter (bearings) with this thing.

I am sure that is just the begining of a long list of things I'll be breaking/replacing.........

My uncle blew his fresh 454 first trip out on his boat. He wanted to break in the motor and was in a hurry so he didn't put his msd(with rev limiter) on. He floored it and the prop cavitated and the motor just spun to about 7k and that was the end of that.

Very nice car Cable! I had an orange 75 back in 88 that someone had given me; little aluminum slots on it....Your car just made me sorry i gave up on it just because i couldn't get that FI system to work right...even with a 2+2 parts car....Damn, i would have never thought a big chevy would fit in there. I just kept on driving the chevelle..Man that would have been cool!

Your car just made me sorry i gave up on it......

....Damn, i would have never thought a big chevy would fit in there.

..Man that would have been cool!

I get the exact same comments every Friday at the local cruise night.

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see this latest post.

The torque converter got swapped on Saturday to a ATI unit, and what a awesome change!! The day before that I ditched my Flowmasters in favor of a pair of round Dynomax UltraFlo race magnum welded mufflers.

Now I have another problem...... gas isn't cheap and the car is just a joy to drive and listen to now that I want to drive it all the time!!

that datsun is so sweet... i've never seen such a thing. 454 in it... wow i want to see that thing run.

My last motor had keith black hypereutectic pistons in it, they cracked and caused all kind of issues. Ulitmately blowing the engine.

Never again. Forged pistons every time from now on for me!