Tell us your engine failure stories....

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I have two...

My Delta 88 with the 3.8 had gasket failure. Water went into a cylinder and hydrolocked the piston throwing the rod thru the block.

My Ford Festiva had something in the valve train let go. It made a horrendous racket.
 
Only engine I remember losing was a 2004 Chevy 3.4 v6 that was in our Venture mini-van. Blew the head gasket. Mechanic said there was a good chance it could be repaired but the cost was well beyond the worth of the vehicle at that point.

Have essentially the same engine in our 2000 Lumina (3.1 version) and it's got 191k on it and shows no signs of dying. Van blew up at 139k.
 
Originally Posted By: KCJeep
Only engine I remember losing was a 2004 Chevy 3.4 v6 that was in our Venture mini-van. Blew the head gasket.

Same thing with my 1997 Venture van. Repaired it, started using coolant again after 2 years and got rid of it. At 240,000 miles.
 
In 1979 driving a 65 air cooled vw bug on an expressway. When pulling off at my exit the engine felt very rough and quit at the side of the road. Lifting the hood the engine smelled like burnt metal and oil. On the crankshaft there was a large pulley that tuned a belt on the generator and in turn rotated the cooling fan. The center of the pulley on the crank had sheared away and the jagged edges were just slowly turning the rest of the pulley. This stopped the generator light from coming on so I had no indication of a problem. Found a new pulley at a junk yard and it got me home but the engine was cooked. The engine cases were warped and leaked oil. It knocked and the cylinders out of round and burning oil. Stuff happens.
 
I've never had a total failure, ever. I've had couple of water pumps and maybe 3 head gaskets, but the engines still ran and got me home. All mopars of course.
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Last one was many, many years ago. Audi 80 with way north of 100,000 miles with a rod out the block doing about 70 in 3rd passing a buss
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'88 Pontiac 6000, 2.5l Iron Duke. Ate the plastic camshaft gear on the highway at about 90,000 miles. Pulled the engine ourselves and had the shop press a new gear on.
 
Never a complete failure either...but on a late 70s [very neglected] Plymouth I got with 80k, we installed a new head gasket.

While doing the job we saw the crusted oil in the head and galleries. Cleaned it out as well as we could, even used a vacuum at one point. Less than 100 miles later, some of that crust blocked an oil passage and we had the knock knock knock of a dead bearing and white smoke out the tailpipe....


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Had a 1989 3.8 liter Ford blow a head gasket. Changed it out myself. Every darn thing on that engine was connected to something else. Had the heads milled and installed new gaskets. Went for a long time then at about 150,000 miles the timing cover sprung a leak and I didn't feel like wrenching on it any more. Off to Pick and Pull.

SF
 
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1966 Chevy 6 cyl I replaced with a Jasper re-built engine in 1970. Reason: Broken rings on #1 cyl. Dad and I did all the work, including re-working the head.
 
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1965 Mustang changed oil, snapped shaft between distributor and oil pump. No oil to engine. We think engine was run with non detergent oil and I used QS detergent oil. Free'd up chunks of crud inside oil pump jamming it's gears.

2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Cracked piston skirt broke free causing catastrophic engine failure.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
1965 Mustang changed oil, snapped shaft between distributor and oil pump. No oil to engine. We think engine was run with non detergent oil and I used QS detergent oil. Free'd up chunks of crud inside oil pump jamming it's gears.

2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Cracked piston skirt broke free causing catastrophic engine failure.


QS in those days would sludge up quickly. I had to scoop out sludge on my 64 Valiant Slant 6 after 50K at 2K OCIs. Not Gooda!
 
My first 7.3 got rearended by another F-350 doing 60 mph. It bent the frame and broke the welds on the flatbed. Long story short, about a week after I got it back form the repair facility, I was driving down a road doing 40 mph and the frank broke and blew a hole in the side of the block with a connecting rod. Upon inspection, it was determined that the impact pushed the driveline just forward enough to unbalance the engine and BOOM...it exploded.
 
Many spectacular engine failures on Bug engines dropping #3 exhaust valve. Blew #6 rod on a Ford 223 I6 at 60 MPH. Drove the truck another 5 miles to a rest area. Ran a couple 360 AMC V8s to slow deaths. One from a leaky fuel pump. Another we drove around on Zero oil pressure due to wiped out cam bearings for 6 months. All in the distant past. 20+yrs of BMWs with nothing but maintenance and little of that. I'm not expecting any drama from the Camry I 4s either.
 
Morris Minor, overloaded with family, flat out on the M5 until the engine seized near Worcester. My uncle let it cool a bit, then took off the head and put it in a stream to cool it down. He thought he knew more about mechanics than he did. Poor car, it wasn't built for that kind of abuse.

A friends Harley Davidson. Rear swing arm broke on one side. Hey, it's a Harley, get used to things shaking and breaking and wheels falling off.

My dads Panther motorcycle, exhaust valve holed. I noticed first a loss of power, and then noticed that one exhaust was glowing red all the way from front to back. The valve was replaced later and the bike was otherwise ok.

Ford Taurus Wagon - about 50 things to list and the car only had 80,000 miles, but the most fun was the steering breaking on an interstate in NJ. The steering let go at speed and felt weird but I was able to drive ok at 65mph. Until I slowed down and all [censored] broke loose. Stopped the car and discovered the steering wheel was only turning the drivers side front wheel. The passenger side wheel was disconnected. Fixed that and sold the car within a week, just glad to be alive.

Cadillac STS. My daughter called me, said the engine overheated, she pulled off the highway. I drove there, and sure enough, the infamous Northstar head gasket problem right on schedule at 100,000 miles. Repair cost exceeded book value of car: from expensive premium car to the scrapyard in only 100,000 miles.

My sons Volvo 740 and Honda Accord, and my wifes Elantra - timing belt stripped. The Volvo was easily repairable, longitudinal engine and not interference. The Honda and Elantra - scrap. The Elantra belt was within mileage and range intervals, not sure about the other two. Lesson - a car must have a timing chain for anything I buy now.

Lots of other mechanical issues along the way, some engine and some not, those are just the ones that came to mind first.
 
Plymouth Arrow that overheated 20,000 miles after I stuck stop leak in it.

Ford Festiva that I bought for about half the book value. Had about 28,000 on it--not sure if the original owner ever changed the oil. At about 120,000 engine gave out and I replaced the entire engine and transmission with a wreck yard unit for about $600 total including labor. My daughter ruined the clutch learning how to shift, gave it to a charity who reported it was their errand car and still going strong at 160 when I checked. That experience always made me fond of HyunKias, although maybe it should have made me fond of Mazdas.
 
Small 50cc road bike, AM6 engine. I replaced spark plug, and the brand new NGK plug let half the isolator fall into the combustion chamber, 10 minutes after starting up. I removed chunks , replaced rings and smoothed cylinder bore to finish the workweek and I went buying a new top end.
 
i had a 1957 dodge pu. 239 ci straight 6. i made an adapter to put 2 bbl carb from a Kaiser. i didnt get linkage just right. the carb stuck wide open. and over reved the engine and broke all the ring lands.
 
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