Who has had a real engine failure?

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Jet boat olds 403 sucked a valve. Broke crank on suburban 350. Threw rod on SBC and it kept running. Various head gasket and valve train failures. Pistons broken.
 
Originally Posted By: Ducked
Wot, no head-gasket/warped head failures?

I thought the cooling system was supposed to be the primary failure mode for liquid-cooled engines?

Or are y'all just obsessed with oil?



oh yeah my sister lost a 96 saturn SOHC head, as they were apt to do.

My dodge dakota 2.5 head gasket was starting to go but I fixed it. Exhaust in the antifreeze, no big deal, didn't contaminate the bottom end.
 
2010 Malibu 2.4 (LE5) Ecotec lost compression on #4 due to what I was told is a deteriorated valve seat. Starting getting codes for exhaust cam phasing issues, and finally misfiring. By the time it got to the dealer it was down about 60% compression. I asked if they could hear it hissing from the exhaust on a compression / leakdown and they confirmed they could.

I had a 2007 G5 GT with the same motor that had the cam phasers fail around 40k and caused similar issues, but it was just that, the phasers.

Engine was replaced under extended warranty, if it wasn't I probably would have just put a new head on it myself. Haven't had it so good with 2.4 Ecotecs in this fleet.
 
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Latest was the 2.2 in a Chevy HHR, timing chain jumped. Found out it was a known issue and could have been a easy job to replace chain and improved tensioner at 100k. Made it to 150k. I pay more attention to vehicle forums now for potential problems.
First was a 300 6 Ford in a utility truck. Rod let go. 1982. Valentines day, trying to get home early.
 
I was doing a stupid thing as a teen and doing a street drag with a buddy of mine. I was driving my parents Mercury Meteor. It may have been a late sixties model. I can't recall. Anyway as I was speeding along suddenly the engine seized up. The oil pump had given up and could not keep up with oil pressure. The engine just quit! Boy did I have a lot of explaining to do to my dad. We got rid of the car.
 
1990 Toyota 4Runner V6 3.slow. Engine had a head gasket failure that was dumping coolant into the crankcase. The next day the truck could not start because the coolant rusted/seized everything in place. The dipstick reading two inches above full a couple days earlier should've been a warning.
I blame the poor exhaust manifold design which can be better seen here.
DkShw.jpg
 
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1999 Dodge Ram 2500 w/ Cummins Diesel. Owned since new. All maintenance up to date. 144,000 miles. 2009.

Engine failed due to piston rod catastrophic failure. Mechanic says that shouldn't have happened.

Replaced with used 2006 Dodge Ram. At a rest stop in NC in 2012. Guy walks up to me and asks how I like the truck. Turns out he is the Quality Assurance manager at the Cummins plant. I tell him about theold truck. He says that shouldn't have happened. He postulated that there was a bubble in the casting and it finally failed.
 
Last engine failure was a Chrysler 2.2 Turbo. The head gasket went. It was a replacement engine too so hard to say how many miles it really had but the car had under 150k, but that was the 3rd engine. When I got it, it was already on it's 2nd engine, the rod bearings went on that one, replaced it with an engine I found in the Want Ads.
 
I had a 2000 Bonneville back in '08 less then 90k miles and the oil pump failed at a stop light. I didn't really know what happened as the car just died. I turned it over and started to drive, got about 20 foot and the engine was locked up.

Last year I had a '01 Chevy 1500 with 380k miles, the original transmission failed at 330k and I had it rebuilt but the rebuild wasn't great and it was starting to slip. The head gasket blew out and I retired the truck to a life at the junk yard.

Those where the only real major problems I've ever had with any vehicle although I had a Firebird many years back that had some electrical problems from a rodent.
 
My beater city 2002 Camry 2.4l daily driver threw a rod in July at 345,860. Didn't see it coming. Accelerated onto the highway and boom, it was over. Was a used neglected car when I bought it at 100k.
 
Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
Originally Posted By: Chris142
My 302 and 350 Chevy's both ate cams at low milages. I consider that a failure. My 350 got a rod knock soon after the new cam was installed. Had a 340 Dodge drop 2 valves,destroyed the 2 pistons.My boss' wrangler needed rod bearings @174K due to a light knock, Bearings were into the copper. My 86 Mitsubishi needed a valve job @35k ...crankshaft broke @44k. A fram oil filter came apart in my moms dodge omni and plugged the oil feed to the head. ruined the cam and head.


Cam failures in some generations of SBC's were common, and NOT related to the oil. They had soft cores. AND, if they just stuck in a new cam w/o doing a complete rebuild, the rod knock was the least of your worries.

Once a cam starts shedding metal, it goes all through the engine by going past the filter on cold starts (by-pass). Embeds in any soft metal like piston skirts and bearings and just eats stuff up. Once a cam goes, they owe you a complete engine teardown, boil-out, and rebuild ...
both were rebuilt engines with aftermarket cams and lifters. broken in correctly by me.
my friend recently lost a rod on his 04 wrangler. he only uses factory filters and chevron oil changed every 4k.
 
Originally Posted By: jcwit
Had a 2001 Fd Escort drop a valve seat upon startup after having been parked may 10/15 minutes.
Exact same thing happened to my MIL's 1.9 Tracer-dumped an intake valve seat at 80K, pounded itself into the piston & tore up the head-bye bye motor!
 
Mostly motorcycles, but I spent most of my youth on bikes not in cars.

Mid-80's Suzuki GS or GSX dropped a valve and killed the engine.

Three 2-stroke Yamaha's seized, RD, RZ and TZR. One from each generation.

We may have been pushing some of them just a little hard at the time.
 
1987 Oldsmobile ninety-eight, with the 3.8l V6. Feb 2000, right around 110k mi, broke the timing belt. Had it replaced, but some fine bits of material got into the oil passages, clogged 'em up. car sounded like a meat grinder.
ended up having to have a jasper re-man block put in it.
 
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I bought a 1969 Cadillac DeVille that had been sitting for years. It was actually a suicide car the guy killed himself in it with a exhaust hose to the interior. Anyway, it sat a long time. I bought it from the son who looked like a doper. It had a slight knock. I changed oil in it and the next day the 472 got really loud going down the four lane and blew a rod through the block. I ended up buying a 502 used motor from, get this a wrecked hearse. It ran Great till I finally sold it years later. Wish I still had it. Found out when we put the new motor in that the doper son actually cut the wires for the low oil warning light so it probably had no oil pressure. I could have saved it, if I knew.
I also had a Ford F150 company truck with 4.6 with only a 100,000 miles blow a rod through the block. It started making a weird noise and I revved the engine to hear it and it blew. I blame Texaco quick lube for that. They changed the oil the day before and I think they put power steering fluid in it instead of motor oil. The oil looked real clear and not like oil. I told the company it was suspicious that I just had a oil change like 20 miles ago and the truck ran fine but they just junked and sold it to a salvage yard before it even left Ford. Ford just said it needed a new engine and it would be around $5000 to fix. They showed me the hole in the block though. They agreed it was strange due to that motor doesn't blow and oil didn't look like oil but clear fluid. Still the company made no big deal, move on,gave me another truck and whatever. I would have persued it.
 
a qt of oil in 250 miles on a 75,000 mile engine in a bought new 72 nova 307 cu in of junk!!! many owners today are forking out $$$ as beta testers of direct injected technology!!! Mini owners are saints or just stupid to put up with constant repairs + failures on a not so cheap "cute" car, harley owners are similar it seems!!!
 
1995 Ford Escort dropped a valve seat at 72K miles, and yes I had just accelerated to get onto a highway with a cold engine. Blew 2 holes in the engine block too. Had a Jasper rebuilt engine put in it (~$4000), and I still drive it even today. Still has the original automatic transmission too at 237K miles. Yes I expected at least one other Escort owner here. When I go to the junkyard, I routinely see Escorts with no body damage, and I know exactly why they are there.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
My 302 and 350 Chevy's both ate cams at low milages. I consider that a failure. My 350 got a rod knock soon after the new cam was installed. Had a 340 Dodge drop 2 valves,destroyed the 2 pistons.My boss' wrangler needed rod bearings @174K due to a light knock, Bearings were into the copper. My 86 Mitsubishi needed a valve job @35k ...crankshaft broke @44k. A fram oil filter came apart in my moms dodge omni and plugged the oil feed to the head. ruined the cam and head.
A FRAM failure trashed an engine? The Fram boys claim that had never happened.
 
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