Engines You Have Destroyed

[americancrx]

How many IC engines have you turned into piles of metallic scrap?

My personal trail of destruction is as follows:

Honda ZC - conrod through block
Honda ZC - purchased with 0 compression
Suzuki SV650 - cams and valves wore to the point of not being able to reach 100 mph
Honda GX160 - seized in an indoor kart race
VM gearbox kart - broke crankshaft
FIAT Multiair Turbo - blown headgasket
Maxter ICA kart - seized piston
Mazda MZR Turbo - sold it the week before the timing chain came off on the freeway
TM gearbox kart- big-end bearing locked up
IAME OK kart - multiple piston seizures
Volkswagen EA888 - shot the turbine wheel into the catalytic converter
IAME gearbox kart - piston ring pin came out in qualifying

[RacingStripes]

None, 22 years of driving and 8 years of racing.

[swisstoni]

One. My commuter/shed was once a Volvo 340.

It basically only got any maintenance when something went wrong with it. Although I was quite attached to it.

Anyway the oil level warning light bulb had failed at some point so I didn't notice when it had basically run dry. It seized on the way up to the Waterworks Roundabout.

I'm not proud of it; eminently avoidable.

[paddy1970]

americancrx said:

How many IC engines have you turned into piles of metallic scrap?

My personal trail of destruction is as follows:

Honda ZC - conrod through block
Honda ZC - purchased with 0 compression
Suzuki SV650 - cams and valves wore to the point of not being able to reach 100 mph
Honda GX160 - seized in an indoor kart race
VM gearbox kart - broke crankshaft
FIAT Multiair Turbo - blown headgasket
Maxter ICA kart - seized piston
Mazda MZR Turbo - sold it the week before the timing chain came off on the freeway
TM gearbox kart- big-end bearing locked up
IAME OK kart - multiple piston seizures
Volkswagen EA888 - shot the turbine wheel into the catalytic converter
IAME gearbox kart - piston ring pin came out in qualifying

At some point, when every engine you touch turns into expensive confetti, the common denominator is you....

[Heaveho]

XR3i 1.9 conversion. Cracked block at 18k miles, failed head gasket. The same car 5 months later failed to restart after being hit head on by another vehicle, resulting in the entire engine being pushed off it's mountings and into the bulkhead. Just one design failure after another with those things.

[ChocolateFrog]

One snapped cambelt that I rebuilt over a weekend on the drive, that's it in nearly 27 years in cars and on bikes.

Edit. It was a Focus with 225000 miles.

Edited by ChocolateFrog on Wednesday 24th December 00:24

[Jamescrs]

Vauxhall Omega 2.5 V6, never found out exactly what happened but lost compression on I cylinder, sold for scrap.

[BricktopST205]

My ST205 Celica GT-Four spat its ceramic turbo core out although luckily that went into the exhaust and the compressor side stayed put.

I melted piston number 4 on my remapped Saab 9-5 Aero whilst playing slip road GP with an Audi A7. Won the battle but lost the war with that one! That required a new bottom end. Still managed to drive it home on 3 cylinders however even though it spat half its oil out the dipstick!

[fridaypassion]

VX220 x 4 - all because people can't build engines

Audi BAM engine destroyed by a customer who ignored a warning to change a hose clip and then came back at my business for it

Exige 410 over revved and we caught the hot potato

Not bad for 15 years in the trade and 20 odd years of track and fast road car use and abuse really.

[tallpaul26]

Spun a shell and destroyed a BMW N47 and burnt a few valves in a shed SEAT 1.4 petrol lump which put that beyond economic repair.

[LimmerickLad]

B16A2 Vtec...I was told they were indestructible

[Evolved]

3SGTE MR2 turbo, cracked the ringland due to too much boost. It was rapid just before it let go. Forged rebuild.

4G63 Evo. Snapped billet crank. Unknown reason but it was cracked on the big end of Piston 1. Full rebuild.

Nova 1.4 SRi, cooked the head gasket twice. Skimmed head and new gasket.

[DickyC]

MG Metro rebuilt by Avonbar to 1340cc. Going south on the Marlow bypass, went bang coming out of the roundabout, but kept running, rough but running, with a lot of smoke. Stopped as soon as I could. Pulled plug leads one at a time, found the popped piston. Turn the engine off, removed the plug and drove home on three cylinders. Oil starvation probably. Surprisingly little damage to piston. Scrap.

Subaru Forrester 'courtesy car' I collected from a customer when I returned his car. Customer and garage owner said the engine had about had it. They were right. It gave up on the A34 near Abingdon. A very nice copper stopped, produced a tow rope and pulled the car and me to a layby. Didn't ask for an explanation or to see my documents, just towed me and went on his way. I think he thought I had enough trouble. Phoned the guvnor, he came out and towed me back at just subsonic speed to demonstrate how angry he was. Hairiest drive ever.

[Paddymcc]

MERCEDES cLS 3.0 OM651 that i piloted through a flood where upon it cut out. Silly me restarted it causing a very loud knocking and rattling noise.

I purchased it back from then insurance company and got a local Mercedes specialist to fire in a replacement engine. I see it the odd time around town so she's still going strong 10 or 11 years after the matter.

[Heaveho]

Oh yeah, my Kawasaki GPZ600R, which also failed the reliability test after I threw it so conclusively into the scenery that I couldn't find what was left of it in the immediate subsequent aftermath.

Upon eventual retrieval it became apparent that it wasn't going to start anytime soon due to the end of the crank having snapped off. The carbs were also detached, but easily found, as they were on the end of the right hand bar which had also snapped off and which was still in my hand, the carbs hanging on the end of the throttle cables, stuck wide open.

Get bikes they said. It'll be fun they said.

[Heathwood]

Snapped cambelt on a 1.3 CVH. Hateful engine anyway.

[Magnum 475]

I used to modify Triumph engines….

The Spitfire 1296cc engine can be modded to about 125bhp at 7,500 rpm. Sadly the crankshafts can’t take it for long. I blew 3 of them before giving up & moving to the 2L 6. They also break crankshafts.

I had an Alfa 155Q4. Two blown turbos and a blown diff.

[castex]

My second AX (don't ask about the first) detonated its 1.1l 55bhp shovinator, I don't remember how or why, so I was super-chuffed to replace that unit with the 1.3 (70bhp?) lump. That made things even more interesting until I tried to race a Golf on the A69 and it went BANG.

[WelshPetrolhead]

I had a head gasket go on a Rover K Series. Although to be honest I’d class that as a service item.

[A.J.M]

End result of the 3.0 V6 snapping its crank at 70mph.
Gave a fraction of a second thrum then cut out and locked solid.
Can’t even say it was high revving at the time. It was doing under 1700rpm.

The risk you take on a Discovery 4.
Got a brand new engine in it now.