I did not find any signs of water in the cylinder, or any other reason for the rod to bend. Well I wanted to build a 408 stroker motor, but not this soon.

Well I guess my car will be a garage ornamant till I get the time and money, mainly money, to build another engine. Atleast there is no damage to the block or heads that I can see.

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Ronnie
69 mach1 351W-4V
70 Torino GT 351C-4v with a "shaker"
Mustangs and More Member #23

That sucks I'd be interested to know what happened. Those things don't just fold over like that for the hell of it Is it my monitor, or is that rod blue?

No it's not your monitor, the top of the rod is blued some. It has been a couple of years since I built my motor, but I seem to remember commenting to my wife how it looked like the shop got the ends of the rods very hot when either removing or installing the wrist pins. This should have threw a flag up to me at the time, but I was ready to get the car going. I have not been back to that shop ever again and will not recommend it to anyone because of the substandard work they did and the time it took them to do it. I am going to look back through my files and see if I had logged the part# on the rods when I broke the engine down. I thought I had C9 rods in the engine, but these are D6OE rods, so I think the shop swapped rods on me also.

I am kinda at a loss as to what happened. Since I found no signs of liquid in the cylinder and I was cranking the engine when it happened it puzzles me. I may see if one of the metallurgist at work can tell what happened, maybe the shop got the rod too hot and changed the heat treatment.

Sam,

I though about using it for a paper weight, but everytime I look at it it makes me sick. It will just have to hang on the wall as a reminder.

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Ronnie
69 mach1 351W-4V
70 Torino GT 351C-4v with a "shaker"
Mustangs and More Member #23

Something else caused that rod to do that! Chances are, the cylinder filled with fuel or water, and the piston didn't have anywhere to go... which caused the rod to bend.

This same thing happened to me once. My heads are ported beyond their safe limits in the bowl area, and a crack formed to the side of the valve guide in the intake port. This allowed water into that cylinder, and when the engine was cranked, the rod bent. The 'now' shortened rod caused the piston to jam against the crank's counterweight... locking the engine up solid.

This just had to happen at the race track, where a lot of friends and family members came to see the car in action... Damn thing wouldn't even back off the tow dolly!

To fix the head, I ended up drilling a hole through the top part of the head between the valve springs so I could JB-Weld the crack on BOTH sides... (after a thorough cleaning and grinding out) After the repair was made, I tapped the hole and installed a pipe plug. I then ground the plug out for spring clearance, and it worked great ever since!

I replaced the piston, rod and the crank (for safe measure) then had it rebalanced... and revved happily ever after.

You need to check for a sunken float (which would allow excessive fuel into the engine) or something leaking water. That engine hydrauliced from something...

I had the block magnefluxed to check it out, but it was fine.

Good Luck!

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Mike Burch
66 mustang real street
302 4-speed 289 heads
10.63 @ 129.3
http://www.geocities.com/carbedstangs/cmml_mburch.html
http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/healey/367
http://www.mustangworks.com/cgi-bin/moi-display.cgi?220

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Alex Denysenko
Co-Administrator and Moderator/ non 65-66 Mustang owner sensitivity co-ordinator

NHRA/IHRA/SRA/MCA member
NHRA and IHRA SS/LA National Record Holder '00, '01, & '02
Fleet of FoMoCo products including 88 ASC McLaren Mustang #28
Part time secret agent license #0089
Professional Manwhore
The Barry of BarrysGrrl

Brandon,

I'm not trying to flame you, but, please re-read my post and I answered all your questions before you asked them except 1. It was from the #4 cylinder. You need to read better before asking questions.

Kid,

Thanks for the info, If I see things dicolored like that at work we check them out real well before we use them.

Mike,

My first thought was the cylinder filling with fuel or water also, but I pulled the plugs right away and did not find any signs of fuel or water. My heads are World Products Windsor Sr. with no porting at all. I'm running and Edel carb (I know Alex don't say anything) and did not see any fuel coming out the vents. i am going to replace the crank also, might as well stroke it.

Steve,

This is 4 pictures of the #4 rod that bent. I pulled the plugs as soon as I determined the motor was locked up and all the plugs were dry and clean, but that is the only possibility that I can think of also. I just did not think the stock starter had enough torque to bend a rod.

Alex,

No, I am running a mechanical fuel pump.

The only way I can describe what happened is like when you use a pull start on a small engine and it yanks the pull rope back through your hand, the engine seemed like it tried to turn backwards. I'm like everone else and think the cylinder had some liquid in it, but I just wish I could have found some sign of it.

I agree that the motor hydraulic'ed, just did not see any evidence of water in the cylinder and did not think the starter had enough force to bend a rod. I know where the water would have come from. As I said we were cleaning the car for a show and the wife opened the hood and washed down the inner fender aprons and firewall to remove the dust, she has done this many times in the past and knows what not to wet under the hood. I run the trianglure Edel foam element air cleaner and it had a little water in the base, but did not seem like enough to cause a problem. You did bring up a good point that the engine had about a 12.7 compression ratio, so I guess it would not take much water.

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Alex Denysenko
Co-Administrator and Moderator/ non 65-66 Mustang owner sensitivity co-ordinator

NHRA/IHRA/SRA/MCA member
NHRA and IHRA SS/LA National Record Holder '00, '01, & '02
Fleet of FoMoCo products including 88 ASC McLaren Mustang #28
Part time secret agent license #0089
Professional Manwhore
The Barry of BarrysGrrl

JONH

As far as a starter having the power to do that it may have had a little help if 1 or 2 cylinders fired on the first rotation.
puting lots of money in this before I found the problem would make me nerves.