Yesterday, my engine unfortunately decided to take it's own life.
RIP 2/23/07 - 6/3/07

Background:
I had been replacing my brake rotors, pads, and putting in SS lines. The car had been on jackstands for 5 days because when I first started I didn't have the right tools for the job and was attempting to use crescent wrenches for everything. Then I had to work 4 days in a row. Well I went into work at the wrong time yesterday so I decided to finish it up. I finished everything, cleaned the brakes off and, bled them. I put the wheels back on, let it down, then torqued the lug nuts to 100ft-lbs.

I go to start it up to break in my brakes when CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK BOOOOM! My dad was down at the end of the street and heard it. It was so loud my neighbor came out to see what was going on. I immediately had a painful suspicion of what this was and bent over to look under my car and saw this:







Needless to say I'm rather heart broken. I'd been saving all my money for 5 years to get a LS1 powered Fbody. I finally got one on 2/23/07 three days after my birthday and a little over 3 months later it kills itself. I haven't jacked it up to look at it yet as I had to go to work about 30 minutes after this happened and didn't get home until 11:15pm. If you look at the third picture though it kind of looks like there's a chunk of connecting rod sticking out on the right or maybe that's just more of the block?

Anyone know what the hell would cause something like this? It didn't leak any oil and I just changed it out about a month ago with German Castrol. The car was level on the jackstands and never on a slope. It did rain really hard on Saturday because of that tropical storm that came through. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

holy cow the guy before prob beet teh **** outa it...

 

Im sorry to hear that, and I know the feeling. Theres a big empy spot betwene the shock towers on my car also right now.

 

Wow man very sorry to here that. It doesn't sound like anything you did while changing the brakes. HAs the car ran fine since you bought it-no rod knock, strange sounds or anything I assume? Usually rods get bent with high rpm, what kind of gas were you using, I've had an engine detonate at low rpms with some bad gas-it exploded the piston in peices real good.
You need to get under there and see what the deal is. Maybe you can get a used LS1 from a parts yard for cheap if you don't have the cash for a new one. Is that metal an actual piece of the block or just the pan?

 

Can you show us what really broke? Was the motor spinning happily for a few moments before it locked up, or was it as soon as you cranked it over? Any chance water blew into the intake and might have filled a cylinder since it was jacked up and possibly on an angle?

 

I just snuck onto a computer at work. The motor didn't spin at all, just locked up immediately and exploded. I don't think it hydrolocked, it was only out there for one day in the rain where it would have been anyways if I wasn't working on it. It was set up level, on four jack stands with no wheels.

I've always used 93 octane in the car. Its never made any weird noises or clunks, ran like a champ. It was all very random I have no idea what the **** caused it. I can jack it up tomorrow morning and take some pictures of the carnage. Thanks for the help.

 

It looks like part of a rod bearing in the third picture

 

Im speechless.....

 

that sir is no good. Quite oddd it'd just decide to blow, good luck on your rebuild.

 

Thanks. It's going to be a while till I get to fixing this most likely as I'm a little short on money right now. Tomorrow me and a friend are going to start on my Camaro so I'll have something to drive in the mean time.

 

damn sorry to hear about your loss!

 

It shouldn't be too bad as long as you didn't break the block. Everything else can be replaced or machined. At least it's a good opportunity to build the engine. I understand that you're on a budget, but it may be worth it to spend a few extra bucks and get it running stronger. If not, you can probably get everything off the Parts For Sale section of the forum. I hope you didn't crack the headers. That would be expensive. If it's all crankshaft, connecting rods, and pistons, then it's not that bad.

 

Very odd indeed. The only time I have seen anything like that happen before is on a nitrous motor where someone accidentally ingest N2O while the motor is off, and then goes to crank it.

 

Very strange indeed. I would still consider hydo-lock until you can completely rule that out. I cant see any other reason to throw a rod on startup.

 

yeah that doesn't make any sense at all for an engine thats stock to blow like that for no reason!

 

Mine did the exact same thing but it was because it hydrolocked after I hit a deep puddle I couldn't see.

 

Did you put the floor jack under the oil pan by chance? I know its a dumb question but.....

 

No I was just thinking the same thing.

That does suck though, sorry to hear it. Hopefully you can find out WTF caused it!

 

I'm going to guess hydro locking too. It's never been on jack stands and gone through a tropical storm before. I definetly didn't jack it by the oil pan.

Here's the pictures of the carnage:

Driver's side:


Passenger's side:






I'll be keeping this updated.

 

sorry to hear that... I had to go thru building a motor last year, my stock shortblock didn't take too well to a relativly high compression set of heads, burnt the ring land off #5 and #7.


If you need a good block and crank for a rebuild I have one, be a good core for a 347 with forged rods/pistons.... PM me if it will help.