Ever had a total engine failure?

[Exhaustgases]

There is the transmission failure thread, so how about an engine failure thread?
I've had friends in the past that have had some, like a buddies mom taking us to school and spinning a bearing on an old 50's buick nail head. I told her to shut it off quick so nothing came out of the side.

 

[Tomioka]

Toyota 3VZ-E 3.slow in a 90 4Runner. Headgasket had a catastrophic failure that was dumping coolant into the oil. Locked the camshafts up the next day.

 

[R18Civic]

Yep. When I was 19 I had a 3300 V6 that seized up after trying to baby it home while overheating. Thermostat for the radiator fans went out.

Current 3800 Series III just failed in less than 500 miles due to oil contamination. Trying to figure out if I'm gonna snatch a short block or try and rebuild it. I assume if the bottom end bearings are worn to [censored] and back then the cam bearings aren't very pretty either.

 

[Lubener]

No but seen a buddy seize his up after putting kerosene in it to clean it up inside.

 

[edwardh1]

new 73 pontiac, rod knock first 1500 miles, friend had new 2009 infiniti rod knock.

 

[Taildragger]

I had two GM diesels break crankshafts while on cruise control.

 

[Spector]

A 1969 VW Beetle. Started from a stop and heard a pop, engine died and smoke coming from the rear. Valve went through a piston, had it rebuilt. Apparently that cylinder had issues with the air cooling on that year. Had less than 100,000 on it.

 

[Ducked]

Broke a piston ring once while crash gear-changing (badly, with kangarooing) because the clutch slave cylinder had failed. Repaired it though.

 

[Ursatdx]

Lost a Rotary in an RX 7 at 100k.
APEX seals.

 

[biggusblockus]

1985 Olds Delta 88 with a 305 V8 spun a bearing while delivering pizzas in high school. It was my moms car. She never got it above 2000 RPM for the first 70,000 miles...until I got ahold of it.

 

[Boomer]

Had a VW air cooled on a 64 squareback go. Catastrophic failure in about 2 miles of driving one day. Bearings went out due to lack of oil pressure.

 

[danez_yoda]

Lost a 1990 sentra at 140k miles when the chain jumped off the gear. Plastic chain guide got brittle and broke and pushed the chain off the sproket. Highway driving at the time. Interference engine of course.....

 

[Chris142]

I had a brand new1986 Mitsubishi pickup with the 2.6L engine. Its crankshaft broke @44k.

 

[Donald]

2001 Jeep 4.0 with cracked piston skirts. Reman engine installed.

 

[irv]

My 87 Chevy Wrangler P/U with a 305 cracked the block in 3 places. It was replaced under warranty.

My 09 SLT Sierra 4x4 ext cab with the 5.3 had it's engine replaced around 8-10,000 kms due to cylinder number 3 being out of round. It clacked like a diesel from around 2-3,000 kms but GM wanted me to put more miles on it.

 

[I_4]

1996 Chevy Blazer 4.3, rod bearing failure, highway driving. Lower intake gasket deathcool most likely the root cause. 101k, family owned since new.

 

[Danno]

Brought a new 2002 Ford Escape 3.0L home, noticed a puddle of oil on the garage floor with 25 miles on the SUV. Made sure oil level was ok, brought it back to the dealer. They installed a new engine - something about a casting issue with the engine. I gave them the SUV back and picked another one off the lot.

 

[blupupher]

I got my '02 F150 with the 2v 5.4 with a bad engine from my cousin. The cam chain gear had spun on the cam shaft.

 

[StevieC]

Ford Escort in our family that dropped a valve seat and cooked the engine. Both with the original and the used engine that replaced it a couple years later. Cracked head on Mitsu 2.6L and 3L worn rings to the point it had no compression and you could turn the engine over by the crank pulley.

 

[Variant_S]

Originally Posted by Boomer
Had a VW air cooled on a 64 squareback go. Catastrophic failure in about 2 miles of driving one day. Bearings went out due to lack of oil pressure.


*I* had a '64 Squareback that snapped the #3 exhaust valve as I was driving across Montana. Towed it home, swapped another engine into it, motored on.