AgaveCorvette

What's the fartherest you've driven with a serious engine problem? Blown head gasket, bad lifter, bent pushrods, etc.

I burnt both head gaskets on a newly rebuilt <img src="images/icons/frown.gif" border="0"> 305 HO. I drove on it 3 days before the rings failed completely and oil started shooting out the dipstick tube. <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

AgaveCorvette

oh, and my 700r4 on my 84 died on the highway doing 90... it made a clack-clack-clack sound and I just buried it and drove it another 2 miles home making a terrible racket. It died completely about a block from the house so I just pushed the rest of the way. :thumbup: <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

Ragtop 99

iTrader: (7)

On my first car, after I burned up the rings, I was getting about 75 miles to the quart of oil, before I had the motor rebuilt.

I was planning to set up the windshield washer tank with oil and hook the hose to my oil cap so I could add oil on a long trip w/o stopping. <img src="images/icons/shocked.gif" border="0">

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

I drove 85 miles with a blown headgasket with DRAGULA. Everytime I slowed down for a toll, I would have to pull over and add water to the cooling system. Dang gates!

Kevin

iTrader: (1)

Drove 3 hours from the track at Steele back to Atlanta with a tore up differential. Felt like I had square wheels by time I made it home. Was about a 230 mile trip.

Kevin

66ImpalaLT1

I drove 15 miles on a pair of spun rod bearing in my '66 with the original 327. Rebuilt the engine and had to grind the rod journals .020. All that crap running though my engine also took its toll on the main bearings, went .010 on them.

Eric

AgaveCorvette

oh yeah! I forgot ! When I did my T5 swap, the mounting positions were reversed because 84 was a changeover year. So I had to drive without my torque arm hooked up 100 miles to Ft. Worth to swap it for the correct one at a friend's. <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

66ImpalaLT1

Almost forgot, I drove 30 miles on a bent torque arm in my '94 Trans Am.



Eric

Neil 6.0

LOL!

Had an '89 Chevy truck with 4.3L V6 that was abused as often as possible. For some reason <img src="images/icons/wink.gif" border="0"> the #1 cylinder started using alot of oil. I'm talking running on 5 cylinders because that one spark plug would foul out about every 500 miles. Kept driving it with full intent to try to blow it up ASAP. <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0"> About two months later it was still running, but used a quart a day! That bitch would smoke like a Freight Train until it got up to operating temp. Looked hilarious! It finally died on me after about 5000 miles of driving it on basically 5 cylinders. <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

Blackbird

I drove almost 1,000 miles with a blown head gasket. I knew the car didn't sound right or feel as fast but it seemed to run pretty good <img src="images/icons/smile.gif" border="0">

That was back in the day when I didn't know too much about cars <img src="images/icons/wink.gif" border="0">

TTopJohn

Not real serious, or even engine related, but it makes a loud racket so I say it counts- Drove 450 miles from Dallas to Baton Rouge with a broken Automatic transmission mount in my 95 Z28. I had to watch out with the gas pedal, if I pushed it hard enough for the transmission to kickdown, or took off from a stop too fast, it would make a BANG-BANG-BANG noise as it beat on the floorboard. But it would still go 90 without a problem <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

2ktrans

Drove my baby for a week with bent pushrods, till the dealer could look at it. 2 days before my app. she got worse and ended up digging into the passanger side head. She's all better now though <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

2000 Silver Z

Drove about 20 miles with a broken rocker arm stud on my old 96' camaro. Made one hell of a racket, dealer fixed it under warranty.

CC

RCowan

iTrader: (25)

Drove 90 miles home from Steele with my intermediate pipe tied up under the car to keep it from falling down--the mufflex came off the Mac Y and lost the clamp.. the fit was less than 1/2 at that time.

Tied it with a piece of wire ripped off an old radio sitting in the cab of 98SSRagtop's beater pickup <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0"> It was a very 'loud' ride home. <img src="images/icons/blush.gif" border="0">

SCZ28

Lots of the LT1 FI guys drive months after seeing blowby from their motors. A 2 foot flume is not uncommon <img src="images/icons/grin.gif" border="0">

PewterFormula02

iTrader: (3)

serious engine problem? well how about serious body damage, causing the one wheel not to turn. I only had to drive it like 10miles to the insurance office. if I went over 25miles/hr it felt like my tire was going to fall off, well good thing I don't have that V6 anymore

gwj

7 miles with a maxed out aftermarket water temp gauge. Had a radiator leak and it was dark thirty on the last stretch to home. Engine quit when I pulled in the driveway. Allstate had already offered to total the car after someone rearended my 87 Z24. <img src="images/icons/smile.gif" border="0"> Told them to bring a tow truck. Car had 185,000 hard miles on it.

01 SS Jay

I had oil pissing out the rear main seal on my 77 malibu. Would drip right down the exhaust pipe onto the car. Drove it like that, with a collapsed lifter on #6 for a year. Everytime i pulled to a stop light id have oil smoke rolling out both sides of the car, it was nasty. No way in hell to pick up a chick with a car like that (besides the fact it was a 4200 lb malibu haha)

BIGBOS

I drove about a half mile on a broken valvespring...I needed to get it under light and I didn't know exaclty what the problem was...

The valvespring let to other problems...

Oil Mixed with the gas inside the engine...
Fried all the spark plugs....
Hopefully the piston didn't smack the valve....

Nice little mess...happened about 4 months ago...

GeorgeC

A few years ago when I had my supercharged '93 Formula, I drove from Orlando back home to Jacksonville (150 or so miles) with a badly blown head gasket... I had to stop a few times and continue to add water since it was pouring out between the head and the block...

Back in 1999, when I was trying to be the 1st 10sec LS1 F-body (HackerJoe beat me to it), I melted 6 spark plugs, and bent/burned up some valves, and really destroyed my heads. The car was still running, but really rough. I drove it home from Gainesville (50 miles) and proceeded to tear the motor down when I got home. One thing led to another, and look what I ended up with. Not quite a comfortable, reliable daily driver any longer. But hey, it's pretty fast for what it is. <img src="images/icons/smile.gif" border="0">

I also had a beater 1985? Ford Ranger with a 2.3L auto. It was a real piece. One summer day, a buddy of mine and myself were driving around with the AC on, stuck in traffic. The truck started to get really hot, and the temp. gauge was rising very quickly. I decided to jump on the interstate and get some air flowing through the radiator to cool things down. Bad idea. I had to keep the truck floored to maintain 40mph on the interstate, and it started losing oil pressure fast. We limped it off the highway, and down the road a bit into a parking lot (0 oil pressure by this time)... Picked it up later and took it home. After that, it would run for 5-10 minutes, then the oil pressure would drop to 0 again and not want to run. Traded it in (got $1000 for it) the next day... <img src="images/icons/smile.gif" border="0">