goose69
Well-Known Member
Seen this done in Car Craft recently and thought, what the heck, it might make a fun thread.
Let's see what kind of "Blown up and mangled" car parts we can come up with and the stories that go with them!!
This has GOT to get good and fun!
I'm attaching a pic of a piston out of my 383 in my '69 Roadrunner. This happened 1 day when my buddy and I headed out of Portland, Or across the bridge into Washington. About a half a 1/4 mile from the bridge a 1969 Chevelle pulled up next to me and proceeded to do a few lunges to edge me into a race. Well, I took the bait and we dropped a gear and put the petals to the floorboards, at least I did. I spun that 383 up to about 6800 RPM and grabbed 3rd while that guy struggled to keep his front bumper ahead of mine, of which he was failing miserably at. Well at the 6400 RPM mark I was able to see the Chevelle's headlights out of my door window. I figured at that point the flogging had been enough for him so I let off. He waved and and I continued down the highway quite proud of myself and my car.
While cruising at approximately 3000 RPM I heard a "ting ting ting" noise. At that moment I thought to myself, "did I leave that wrench on my inner fender and it just fell off? Weird". Not so much. This is when the trouble started. It began like a fouled plug, which this motor did often in #6 cyl. We figured we'd switch it out when we got to our destination in a couple miles. We made it there but it sounded worse & the plug was indeed shot. Changing it didn't help either........... better head home now! Being the age of 20 we didn't have "AAA" to tow it or $ for the wrecker so to home we went, about 38 miles away.
The Bird made it down the highway quite a ways before it really started showing signs of maybe not making it. Lots of stuttering and smoke started appearing out the back of the car, hmmmm not good. Well better put the petal down farther ha? Yep! About 7 miles away from the house I noticed in the rear view mirror there was a nasty bank of clouds that blanketed the road, well actually that ended up being the smoke coming out of the back of the car. No joke this looked like the best James Bond smokescreen I'd ever seen in my life. We couldn't see ANY cars behind us. Reminded us of the Cheech & Chong movie we'd seen the previous weekend, you guys know which one that was!! Well this meant 1 thing, better stop for more oil because it's ALL going out the tailpipes. Stopping at the AM/PM gas station my buddy jumped out and got a quart of oil, popped the breather and tried to put some of it in. With all the blow by it simply dispersed it accrossed the motor, inner fenders and firewall. He yells at me that not much made it into the motor and asked if he should get another quart. I told him "hell no! Just get in and let's get this thing home!" We made it home with enough power out of the motor to pull it up to the garage.
Of course we HAD to know what went wrong, so we tore into it that night to find that a valve had snapped at the stem and bounced around in the cylinder looking for a way out and eventually finding one in the way of a hole in the top of the piston.
Lesson learned? It's worth the cost of a motor to send another Chevy guy home crying to Mamma!
Well that's my story, let's hear all of yours!!
Let's see what kind of "Blown up and mangled" car parts we can come up with and the stories that go with them!!
This has GOT to get good and fun!
I'm attaching a pic of a piston out of my 383 in my '69 Roadrunner. This happened 1 day when my buddy and I headed out of Portland, Or across the bridge into Washington. About a half a 1/4 mile from the bridge a 1969 Chevelle pulled up next to me and proceeded to do a few lunges to edge me into a race. Well, I took the bait and we dropped a gear and put the petals to the floorboards, at least I did. I spun that 383 up to about 6800 RPM and grabbed 3rd while that guy struggled to keep his front bumper ahead of mine, of which he was failing miserably at. Well at the 6400 RPM mark I was able to see the Chevelle's headlights out of my door window. I figured at that point the flogging had been enough for him so I let off. He waved and and I continued down the highway quite proud of myself and my car.
While cruising at approximately 3000 RPM I heard a "ting ting ting" noise. At that moment I thought to myself, "did I leave that wrench on my inner fender and it just fell off? Weird". Not so much. This is when the trouble started. It began like a fouled plug, which this motor did often in #6 cyl. We figured we'd switch it out when we got to our destination in a couple miles. We made it there but it sounded worse & the plug was indeed shot. Changing it didn't help either........... better head home now! Being the age of 20 we didn't have "AAA" to tow it or $ for the wrecker so to home we went, about 38 miles away.
The Bird made it down the highway quite a ways before it really started showing signs of maybe not making it. Lots of stuttering and smoke started appearing out the back of the car, hmmmm not good. Well better put the petal down farther ha? Yep! About 7 miles away from the house I noticed in the rear view mirror there was a nasty bank of clouds that blanketed the road, well actually that ended up being the smoke coming out of the back of the car. No joke this looked like the best James Bond smokescreen I'd ever seen in my life. We couldn't see ANY cars behind us. Reminded us of the Cheech & Chong movie we'd seen the previous weekend, you guys know which one that was!! Well this meant 1 thing, better stop for more oil because it's ALL going out the tailpipes. Stopping at the AM/PM gas station my buddy jumped out and got a quart of oil, popped the breather and tried to put some of it in. With all the blow by it simply dispersed it accrossed the motor, inner fenders and firewall. He yells at me that not much made it into the motor and asked if he should get another quart. I told him "hell no! Just get in and let's get this thing home!" We made it home with enough power out of the motor to pull it up to the garage.
Of course we HAD to know what went wrong, so we tore into it that night to find that a valve had snapped at the stem and bounced around in the cylinder looking for a way out and eventually finding one in the way of a hole in the top of the piston.
Lesson learned? It's worth the cost of a motor to send another Chevy guy home crying to Mamma!
Well that's my story, let's hear all of yours!!
