How a freak accident ate a piston on my new motor!

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Tripper

Tripper

Older and more rusted every day!
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
14,178
Location
Central Tejas
A freaky thing happened on my way home the other night. I was driving down the road & boom!!! My new LS3 crate motor came to a grinding halt. I restarted it & pulled in to an adjacent parking lot. I raised the hood & notice the air cleaner top is off it's perch & the screw that holds the air cleaner on was missing... rut row!!! Yep... that screw had fallen down the intake & somehow got on top of the #8 piston & I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Gastrick suggested I use blue Loctite from now on!!! Now I'm suggesting you do the same & maybe avoid a very costly mistake!!! :mad::mad::mad:

BoB
 

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man sorry dude, but on the brite side looks like you invented the first 7 cylinder LS 2.5

do any damage to the block or head? (cracks) hope you get er rolling again soon! dp1
 
dogpatch1 said:
do any damage to the block or head? (cracks) hope you get er rolling again soon!
Click to expand...

DP1,
It's my driver so I had it pulled out & will take to my fav machine shop in the next couple of daze. Sorta wish I had gone EFI now instead of carbed!!! Never had anything like this happen B4!!! [S

BoB
 
I have always used the Blue LocTite on the air cleaner stud that goes into the top of the carb and then used just a small dab of clear silicone on the air cleaner nut. I recently changed and what I do now is use the red LockTite on the mounting stud and a chrome lock nut on the air cleaner. That is what I used on my stock cars back when I was racing and will do the same as soon as I find a street rod.

That really stinks dude.
 
Yikes! Sorry to hear about your engine.

Something similar happened to my AMX one time. One cylinder ate a 3/8" nut, how it got in there I have no idea!

Hope your back on the road soon!
 
That looks expensive! :eek::eek: I bought a GTO from a buddy years ago, he was tuning it up and had been using a square nut to keep the air cleaner on as he had lost the wingnut. The engine was running and he dropped the nut down the quadrajet. When I tore the engine down one piston had a perfectly square hole punched through it. I replaced the piston and was back on the road.

Your's looks more serious.

Don
 
rainman said:
Sorry to hear it thanks for the tip off tho. Did it trash the block?
Click to expand...

I hope not! Taking motor to the machine shop tomorrow... will find out soon enough!

Sam_Fear said:
That picture made my gut hurt. Sorry to hear it.
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FlatBroke said:
Dude that looks ugly.....
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Gearhead10 said:
OUCH! Been there ..... broke that. Kind of a sinking feelin when that happens.
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Yep... I lunched an engine a couple of years ago & it's a really bad feeling when it happens... I knew what was up but still held out hope. Mite just bore the sucker out a lil while I'm @ it! :D

BoB
 
Nasty! Coulda been worse though---

You Coulda looked over at your passenger just before that happened and uttered those dredded words---"Watch This"

Stupid wont fix--that motor prolly will.

(hate to admit I've said that)

PA41
 
nexttime you could also try to safety wire the bolts together, we do that to all the bolts on our aircraft in a high danger/vibration area.
 
So I'm at work doing a routine tune up on a 2006 Dodge Ram with a Hemi a couple of weeks ago. I notice that my air ratchet stops working and I don't know why. I grab my back-up and continue, fire it up and BANG!!! It drops a cylinder and I'm scratching my head. I scan it, PO306, cyl #6 misfire. Pull the plugs back out of #6, both of them smashed flat. CUSTOMER IS WAITING IN THE OFFICE. Long story short, the pin that drives my air ratchet fell out and fell into the spark plug hole. Destroyed the piston and the head. cost me a BUNCH. Very bad day.:mad:
 

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