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Destruction on the Dragon

S

striker2

Official CEG Vendor
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
7,903
Location
Arvada, CO
As most of you know, we had our annual Tail of the Dragon run this weekend. Friday afternoon when we were coming back down the Dragon i heard my car start knocking. I decided that i would try to limp it back to the cabins where it would be easier to get to with a tow truck or trailer. well, about 3 miles from the TN line i hear a boom and then parts bouncing off the ground into the under body. I managed to coast it down the hill and got extremely lucky and pulled it into a little pull off. After waiting for about 10-15 minutes, the rest of the group showed up and we pushed it off into the grass, locked it, and headed back to the cabins.

My Mom, friend, and Fiance came down with a truck and trailer on Saturday and we loaded up the car and headed home and finally made it safely back about 1am Sunday morning. later that morning, after getting some sleep, we unloaded the car and I discovered this sitting on the trailer.

SSPX0403.jpg

yes, thats part of the big end of a connecting rod.


we then pushed the car into the garage and i put it up on jack stands. removing the y-pipe i see the following.
101_0739.jpg


after draining over 5 qts of oil from the pan, i unbolted it and pulled it down to find this
101_0741.jpg


since you cant see past the windage tray, i unbolted it and after prying it off the studs (yes it was bent and wedged onto the studs) i see more parts.
101_0742.jpg


looking up into the engine i see the following.
101_0753.jpg



you can see the main bearing cap is actually cracked all the way through:crazy:
101_0744.jpg


101_0755.jpg


101_0749.jpg


101_0750.jpg




Continued in next post, damn ten image rule.
 
after looking at the rest of the cylinders, i noticed that both cylinders 2 and 5 had bent wrist pins. (they are hard to see in these pics)
101_0751.jpg


101_0752.jpg


while cylinders 1 and 4 seem to be ok, i wont know for sure until probably December when i get a chance to pull the heads off.


so, while im upset that it blew up, im at least content that it was spectacularly catastrophic.:crazy::crazy::crazy: at this point, i dont know what im going to do with the car, other than let it sit covered at home in the driveway.
 
I wouldn't even waste time taking it apart. Grab new engine and throw it in. Every 2.5 I see that is driven after rod knock throws a hole out that side.
 
todras said:
I wouldn't even waste time taking it apart. Grab new engine and throw it in. Every 2.5 I see that is driven after rod knock throws a hole out that side.
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i know the engine worthless, clearly since there are 2 holes in the side of the block, im just curious what it looks like from the top. :crazy:

Im also not sure what im going to do with it yet. I might save and put a 3L in it, or i might just sell it as is for someone else to put a 3L in and then get something else. right now im leaning towards getting something other than a Contour, but whether i put in a 3L and sell it or let someone else put in a 3L is still up in the air.
 
Oh man that sucks! I am really bummed to see your SVT bite the dust. What do you think caused this?
 
blu_fuz said:
Oh man that sucks! I am really bummed to see your SVT bite the dust. What do you think caused this?
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im not sure. oil pressure never dropped, and i drained over 5 qts before removing the pan. still had the oil filter on it, plus the almost qt of oil that was on the road and trailer, so its not like it was low on oil.
 
That sucked to literally hear Dan. Now you will be infamous! I need some parts of your engine to make the "The Striker Award" for future Dragon runs!:crazy:
 
hectik1 said:
That sucked to literally hear Dan. Now you will be infamous! I need some parts of your engine to make the "The Striker Award" for future Dragon runs!:crazy:
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I intend to pull the heads off over winter break and will pull any large chunks of piston/rod left out. will probably pull the other chewed up piston rod for the tree of shame. :laugh: :crazy:
 
if it still had oil ,was there any indication before this happened (rod knock) :shrug: and how many RPM's was it turning at time of destruction
edit ; I saw that you mentioned rod knock but was it instant or on going?
 
royalblue said:
if it still had oil ,was there any indication before this happened (rod knock) :shrug: and how many RPM's was it turning at time of destruction
edit ; I saw that you mentioned rod knock but was it instant or on going?
Click to expand...
it started knocking on the Dragon so I decided to try to limp it back, or at least get as far as possible, to the cabins where it would be easier to get a truck and trailer. it was turning at about 3000RPMs when it happened as i was going up a hill and had no choice but to downshift if i wanted to make it to the top, which i did. right about the top of the hill is when it exploded. managed to cost it downhill to a pull off on the Cherohala Skyway a couple miles inside of NC.
 
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