does anyone else kind of enjoy seeing the results of a catastrophic failure? Its kind of intriguing in a way seeing something completely destroyed and trying to find out why it came to be.
I don’t because it’s usually something I ignored
No it’s not just you.
Everyone does other then the one paying the bill
There are some things that need catastrophic failure, and it just won't die.
I was privileged to watch the explosion of a rotary engine that Cummins was back engineering.. It was put in a test cell and ran for hours at full rpm’s until it EXPLODED.. That was AWESOME.!!!
Most recent one for me was a C7.1 with a broken turbo shaft. Couple weeks ago had to cut out a big spherical roller bearing that seized due to lack of regular lubrication. You know you're in for fun when the rollers have all turned 90° and are burnt black & blue.
Yeah I don't like seeing it at all...
I like doing the failure analysis but something in me just won't let a machine self destruct if I see it in process of doing so.
I let one die, it was such a clap-trap piece of junk that had no business being operated. The pitman arm was welded to the steering box output shaft. brakes? what brakes, exhaust system leaked so bad it would make anyone driving it sick. The 2 stroke ate 2 gallons of coolant a day, the shift rails would jam up. The dump box had holes in it. The boss wouldn't spend a penny on it but if he could find someone to drive it that was ok. Everyone was happy I let it blow up except him.
Like train wrecks, can do everything but look away!!
There are a few guys out there who blow up Detroits, Deboss, KT3406E and this guy, but usually they seem to have some minor failure and might have kept going, instead of chucking a rod or something. I am not sorry to see them go, blasted noise makers.
Cannot deal with the programmed oil leakers anymore, turned down several as noted "All my old DD Tools are GONE AWAY." Went to OKLA.
I've told this before, Years ago a repair and towing shop I worked for had a yard full of abandoned cars and pickups. Mind you these were beaters left along road side or parking lots. I came up with the fun idea to see if some would run without too much involved and have a brick party inviting mechanics from shops around town. Kevin the owner thought it was a great idea and planned on betting how long each one would run. IIRC 25 showed up each with a six pack for a 18 car brick party. There was a just about every make of car ready. The first one a Buick Riviera 455 only made it 15 seconds and a rod cap went skittering through the dirt with five quarts on the ground. The Chevy fans weren't to happy the longest a small block made it was a little over a minute, there were four of those along with a big block 402 which didn't make a minute. The big block Fords and Dodges didn't fare much better, but the small block Dodge ran almost 3 minutes. The one V8 my favorite V8 built by Ford ran almost 10 minutes wide open occasionally floating valves but would recover to full throttle. It never lost the rotating mass, instead it got so hot the exhaust manifolds were a maroon red glow-lost ring tension and slowly ground to a halt, then the silicone spark plug boots caught fire.-----A Ford 351 Cleveland in a 72 Montego. The engine that wouldn't die--A 1968 Toyota 3RC 4 cylinder with a solid cam. It ran wide open and maintained 190* temp with 35 oil psi. It ran till it ran out of gas which was over 15 minutes. Went for more gas, it just kept going and going so I pulled the power wire and cut the fan belt. It ran at 250* plus for another 5 minutes-blew the neck and cap from radiator lost ring tension and ground to a stop. Now some on here would think this was crazy, that's fine. But everyone that was there learned something that day----That Toyota was going to be king in the future.
Sounds like my kind of party.
They were doing that in the mid 2000s when that cash for clunkers deal was going on. Since they had to destroy the engines in whatever vehicle was exchanged in the program, the guys were taking bets on how long some would last. Drain the oil, drain the coolant, brick the pedal and let er rip. Dodge 1500 w/318 ran over 5 minutes Most domestics were done in 2 to 5 minutes. German cars didn't make it a minute. The couple I witnessed wound up, screamed at redline, and then slowly ground to a stop. Nobody ever reported a catastrophic failure, they all pretty much died the same way.
We got the jump on it in 1987.
Just too bad Chrysler didn't put the same amount of thought into their auto transmissions of that era as they did the 318 and 360.
I enjoy this from time to time drain the oil and let it rip tie the governor open. Its funny how long they will go and the once the rod dies how long it will take to coast to a stop
When I was 21, I had a sawmill, cutting mostly cypress. I had a Ford 3400 loader tractor, with the 175 diesel. I had just rebuilt the engine, and then it started losing 5 quarts of oil a day (turned out to be a seal in the hyd pump, but I didn't know it then). One Sunday, my father wanted to take my C-50 dumptruck and haul sawdust from my mill for his garden. I told him ok, but take plenty of oil for the tractor. Monday morning he told me: "I did a bad thing, and I am sorry". He had hauled all day, and every load he forgot to get any oil. My mill was 10 miles down a dirt road, so every time he would load and then plan to get oil the next load. He ran it til it shut off. I put 5.5 qts of oil in a 6qt oil pan. I hooked the dumptruck and the service truck to it with 2 sets of jumper cables and got it started with ether. It was idling about 500 rpm and knocking hard. I sat down and watched and he finally asked me why? I said "I have never seen a rod come through the block. I am out of business anyway, cause I don't have the money for an engine, so I might as well watch it blow up." After about 10 minutes, I realized it was quieter. After idling an hour, you could barely hear the knock. After using it for a day, it wasn't knocking. I still have it, haven't ever opened up the oil pan, and it still runs with good oil pressure.
oops
In HS kid I went to that school with inherited a 48 Plymouth four door, missed badly tried to adjust valves, even pulled the pan to see what could but engine was toast. We looked at one another and the Evil lamps went on!! We got in, started it and left, no pan no side covers and ran all over town. Knocking hammering smoking, got it back to his house after well over a hour and shut it off where it seized tighter than Dick’s hatband.