Who has had a real engine failure?

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We see a lot of talk here about engines dying for whatever reason.
I've owned a number of vehicles over the past forty years, some of which went past 200K and I've never had an engine fail.
They might use or leak a little more oil as the years and the miles accumulate and they might lose a little power but they haven't seemed to fail outright.
I know that some engines have baked-in problems that may result in early failure, but how many here have seen an engine in daily driven road use given reasonable, non OCD maintenance fail at anything much less than 200K?
I haven't and I don't think it happens more often out of 100K engines than one can count on the fingers of his hands.
 
Ecotec in my BIL's cavalier (that I sourced & fixed up for him) blew up. Timing chain went one cold morning when he tried to start it. Power steering pump mooched off a camshaft; didn't help things, IMO.
 
A good friend of mine, admittedly due to his own stupidity, managed to spin #7 and #8 rod bearing in his 4.6L Modular during an Edmonton winter day by trying to do a burn-out when it was -40C with a cold engine..... He still was able to drive it back to Ontario though.
 
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.
 
The only vehicle I've owned that might apply is the 2001 STS I had. The rings were replaced by Cadillac early on (~30k miles or something), and then the entire engine was replaced at something like 40k miles. I imagine it was due to oil consumption (rather than a catastrophic failure), but I couldn't say for sure. All I know is it had a different engine; all of that occurred prior to me owning it.
 
Rolling down I-40 years ago about 65 mph I had a Subaru(80's) hatchback grenade. Piston came up too far, and pulverized the spark plug.
 
Had a 1991 Taurus purchased new with 19k miles on it when it blew up and Ford covered it with no question and when I asked them why they said they had seen several and it was a mfgs. defect.
 
What did Fram say ??

I bet they sent you a new filter once they saw the pics !!

MG Spitfire ran out of oil due to bad rings and valve guide oil seals (Poor previous service history).

Cummins 300 marine TDI dropped an exhaust valve trashing the head. Repaired under warranty by the boat munfacturer cos the problem was caused by use of too course a pitch prop overloading the engine.
 
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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 ...
 
I've had a couple go:

1979 Caddy DeVille - circa 1991 with 125K miles or so spun a bearing. Turns out a fuel pump diaphragm failure washed fuel into the oil system. Or so I was told. Had a nice rod knock. Still, changed the fuel pump and oil, then drove it around for a few hundred miles before selling it. That "boat" was driven quite lovingly by both my Dad and myself. The first symptom of that problem was while driving on the highway I could visibly see the gas needle moving down with no signs of where it might be going. Got it off the highway within a few minutes of seeing that and stopped at the nearest garage...still too late.

1988 Buick V6 - full sized car - my son's. Circa mid 1990's...around 130K miles he got a red oil warning light...and drove the car on the highway until the engine seized just as he got to his exit for home.

1985 Ford LTD V6 - bought with 44K miles in the early 1990's from an elderly couple. By 62K miles that car was a total mess. I suspect they short tripped it to death with 2-3 mile runs in the winter. I sold it before the engine died but no way was that going to make it much past 70K-100K miles.
 
Rod out the side of the block in my Audi. But I had beat on that motor for years. rebuilt it and went right back at it (I JB welded the piece of block skirt that broke out:D) ...

That car was WAY too much fun to just retire
smile.gif
 
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?
 
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Me & a Buddy were going to Ensenada Mexico in a Opel Gt Wagon on a Surf trip. were headin down the coast running about 60mph and that motor just let go - huge cloud of white smoke soon the rod knock was there and she died. lucky we had a buddy following in his Truck - so we just left that nice Opel right there on the side of the road and headed on the San Miguel.
 
I had a 360 V8 in a Grand Wagoneer lose oil pressure bad cam bearings. My wife drove it around town for a few months until it spit out 2 push rods I had plenty of bug motors drop #3 exhaust valve. Nothing in 20 yrs lately. Old 528es never broke from oil troubles. Same with the 535i. I know a guy who put 586 K miles on his 85 535i. 300 K miles was typical. Engines and oil are way better now. Biggest trouble these days is plastic failure causing an overheat.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
I know that some engines have baked-in problems that may result in early failure, but how many here have seen an engine in daily driven road use given reasonable, non OCD maintenance fail at anything much less than 200K?

13B rotary engine in a 1974 Mazda RX4. It wrecked itself catastrophically at 80K miles, the vehicle grinding to a halt on the freeway during rush-hour. Being an early rotary, this may have been one of those "baked-in" situations.

This was back in the '80s, before cell phones made it trivial to record every eructation and flatus of everyday life, so I have no pictures. But I assure you that the galled and torn rotor and housing looked pretty impressive.

According to my mechanic, the failure was due to either of two causes:
1) the oil-feed line to that rotor had become blocked (the other rotor was fine), or
2) the chrome coating on that housing had failed.

I kept the failed rotor and housing around for years; it made a great conversation-piece.
 
'02 F150 with a 2v 5.4 had a cam gear spin on the cam shaft. 167,000 miles on engine. Was my cousins truck and sat for 2-3 years, only being started once every few months. When I got it, it was 3 qts low on oil and like this (it would run, just very badly).
 
I lost a couple of engines over the years. The most recent was a 350 Chevy engine in a work truck. The writing was on the wall for that one. It was used and abused by the previous owner. Air filter wasn't installed properly and allowed tons of dirt in.

I was once left stranded when a timing belt broke on the freeway. That was an old 94 caravan with a 3.0 v6. I was attempting to pass a truck when it broke. The belt bunched up around the crankshaft and blew a hole into the oil pan. Quite a mess. That was my own fault as I didn't know half of what I know now regarding maintenance.
 
Co-worker asked me to look at his SAAB 9-5, white smoke from the exhaust. Head gasket/coolant loss/cracked head between the exhaust valves, not necessarily in that order. He got another head, though.

My Lada's water pump's impeller smashed its way out of the side of the pump and through the radiator. My fault because I'd left it with 3-blades on a 4-bladed fan. Total coolant loss on the motorway, which should have killed it, but my GF limped it to the next exit, parked it up, and I fixed it a week later. That thing was pretty tough.
 
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