She Blew Up!

[126coupe]

Blew up bigtime at CA Speedway this weekend. Just finished tearing it down. heres what happened.... #6 rod bolt let go. (Carillo Rods) Boy those rods are strong It took out the case, the oil pump. the cylinder, the crank( std, knife edged ect) the piston, also when the rod broke the piston collided w the valves and broke the rocker arm........ metal everywhere..F..........

Any methods on how to clean my front coolers and many oil lines?

I dont mind sending out the coolers.

It gave no warning Just lost a cylinder oil light flicker and it was all over. No holes in the case but........... a mess

I'll post pictures of the mayhem

[onewhippedpuppy]

Ouch! I'll tip a 40 to it's memory. Now it's 3.6 time!

[126coupe]

Photos of the rod bolt failure

[John Rogers]

I did that last year with my 914 stroker four which is why I put in a six. My temp sender on the bottom of the case went into the pits near the start-finish line...... The pictures looked just about the same!

[911ctS]

Oh man................such a tough break, wait..................wait...........ok I said my prayer.
so sorry to see this carnage of what looked to be a very well thought out and built engine. I can see the boat tailing of the case and the knife edged crank....oops nevermind im just making it worse. give my condolences to your surviving parts and long live the memories of the dead.
Except that bastard of a rod bolt.

[Jack Olsen]

Ouch. Sorry to hear about it.

The truth is, it could happen to any of us, at any time.

[Zeke]

I did some serious damage to a 4 cyl last year and the metal you mention is indeed a problem. What I did was burn a piston, so hot metal went thru the motor, lines and coolers. The engine cooler was tossed. The deal there was that the metal was still hot enough to stick to the interior surfaces. The lines I had were Earl's and are smooth inside, so a rigorous flushing cleaned them up nicely. I haven't yet tended to the front mounted cooler, but I think that the metal was cool enough by the time got up there that a super cleaning will do the job.

[Doug Zielke]

My stomach is strong.....
Some (sharp) close-ups of those pistons, cylinders and rods would be much appreciated.

[126coupe]

my digital camera i have is over 5 years old having trouble w closeups. time for a new camera

[UTKarmann_Ghia]

Man, tough break...literally. I cant imagine that the case is salvagable. What's next?

[Eric Mckenna]

Did she give you any warnings?? any signs she was dying on the way to or before the track day?
or did it just .. Go? I am sorry to hear of this ...
well I see a 3.6 coming.. hahahah

eric

[126coupe]

This race engine has been reliable for 5 years, refreshened at 35-45 hours yearly. no bearing wear at all at 45 hours! this engine had 38 hours on it. i hold 20 quarts of oil and run 200-210 degrees on the hottest days at willow sp. CA Speedway is tough on engines I was hammering it hard on fri and sat ( 8400 rpm's in the oval section in 5th) No warning, oil light flicker and lost a cyl Then I shut her down. Lost the case, crank ect. what a mess $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ have all the parts to build my 2.5 now!

[126coupe]

oh i forgot to mention this was all caused by a rod bolt failure. i replace the carillo rod bolts w every refreshen.

[Plavan]

Wow- sorry about the big loss Mark. I those damn rod bolts. My dad has the California speedway curse X 2. Two engines now were the victims. We will be tearing his motor apart this week. We will have more carnage photos.

[MMARSH]

Wow, sorry about the engine. Those pictures are bringing back bad memories. I lost a rod bolt in a freshly built 3.4 a couple of years ago. Did the same damage plus a big nasty hole in the top of the case.


Oh, I had my front oil cooler ultrasonicly cleaned. don't know any of the details, I sent it to my wrench and he took care of it. I've since reinstalled it and have been running it for almost two years without any issues.

[banjomike]

OH MAN!! and I just ate lunch!

Do a search on oil cooler and cleaning. There was a thread last year about ultrasonic techniques used in airplane oilcoolers.

I wonder if frequent replacement of rod bolts increases the chances of installing one with a flaw (or making a mistake on installation)?