Engine type most often blown up, of all time?

[gadget73]

Smallblock Fords hold up fine if you don't do amazingly stupid things to them. They don't like 6000+ rpm or making 400+ hp, though the older 289 and 302 block will handle that better than the late castings will. Keep the engine at a reasonable rpm and don't try and make insane horsepower, along with the usual maintenance stuff and they hold up fine. Having the carb not set pig rich also does them a lot of favors.

 

[savatage1973]

Was your Camaro stock? Or major modified. Stock the vintage Chryslers handled better. Modified got you the edge.

Camaro was totally stock (including the Delco 8-track player), but it was a bit of a "unicorn" or "bastard" released from the factory. It was an RS model with a 396 and 4 speed manual--no air, no power locks or windows--all business. I bought it for $7K over 30 years ago and sold it for $48K a couple years ago. Got a bunch of trophies, but nothing big because I was caught in the dillemma--do you do the re-paint and make it "perfect", or do you leave it alone to prove that is all original--I left it all original--no bodywork or re-paint--so it stayed with the original navy blue and white stripes--no rust--they were just getting dull.

The HellCat is a modern marvel of 1970's technology--big pig of a car with way too much motor, and I'm OK with that.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Yes, that HellCat today is a modern take on 1970's technology , big pig of a car with way too much motor. A nice retro throwback and modern on the other hand.

 

[savatage1973]

Yes, that HellCat today is a modern take on 1970's technology , big pig of a car with way too much motor. A nice retro throwback and modern on the other hand.

The HellCat is a handful, but (as a HellCat owner), I have been granted with the option to buy a Demon--they are being really picky as to who gets those, and have imposed major restrictions on the dealers and potential buyers--the dealers can't mark them up--you must own a HellCat to apply, and you can't sell the car for more than MSRP for at least a year (or so they say--I don't know how this would work in reality). Fiat/Chrysler seems to think that they are Ferrari now. At this point, I have declined--for the "real" performance package Demon, it deletes the air, passenger and rear seats (to reduce weight) and all other options, and requires an available "post factory" ECU to attain max performance--not so appealing to me.

 

[Wildcat]

GM V6 (not sure which displacement/model) head gasket failures? Seen and heard about lots of these.

Yeah, the 3100 V6. A turd on wheels. My other half had a crap-ass 2002 Malibu when we first met, and that effing miserable engine needed to be rebuilt at one point when it was not that old. (And I knew two other people at work with the same car, same engine...same problem. And the company actually had these as company cars, and none of them lasted long.) This engine was the focal point of a class action suit against GM since they apparently used a plastic head gasket (or some other material that never should have been used as a head gasket). That POS car had everything else go wrong with it also, not too long after the engine was rebuilt. Glad it was wrecked.

 

[gadget73]

My mom had a Lumina in the late 90s with one of those. Never had any real problems with it, but when she brought it home right off the lot it had some valvetrain clatter. It never got worse at least.

Is that the gasket that was eaten away from the Deathcool? The 4.3 in my S10 is known to have that issue with the intake gaskets. I got rid of the Dexcool a long time ago, and the original intake gaskets were changed about 2 years ago with more than 160K on the motor. They also had not blown, I had noticed a slight coolant smell and saw the green crust. I don't believe any got inside the crankcase, or not enough to cause harm at any rate

 

[kirk57]

But like most things with a hemi... looks like he won despite the motor exploding into a million pieces.. LOL!

Yeah I noticed that!

 

[savatage1973]

Is that the gasket that was eaten away from the Deathcool? The 4.3 in my S10 is known to have that issue with the intake gaskets.

"DeathCool" was the demise of many GM engines. Yes--it was safe for your pets and children to drink like Kool-Aid, but it was not kind to intake and head gaskets, and even water pump seals--and it deteriorated fairly rapidly in terms of its ability for engine cooling/freezing protection.

Another pet peeve of mine with GM back in the 90's were the "sealed" automatic transmissions--they had no dipstick or user accessible fluid fill port--you were to take it to the dealer to be serviced (which nobody did), so they sold a lot of new and/or rebuilt automatic transmissions, and ironically, the replacements had a dipstick/fill port--guess that was the $2K option that they omitted.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Yeah, the 3100 V6. A turd on wheels. My other half had a crap-ass 2002 Malibu when we first met, and that effing miserable engine needed to be rebuilt at one point when it was not that old. (And I knew two other people at work with the same car, same engine...same problem. And the company actually had these as company cars, and none of them lasted long.) This engine was the focal point of a class action suit against GM since they apparently used a plastic head gasket (or some other material that never should have been used as a head gasket). That POS car had everything else go wrong with it also, not too long after the engine was rebuilt. Glad it was wrecked.

Yes, my nickname for them was the MaliBlew! A car which was prone to F.U.B.A.R too often.

 

[savatage1973]

Let's take a ride back in the "way back" machine--how about adding the Pontiac Sunbird Turbos to the pile?

 

[nj pheonix]

I think the extremely short run 301 turbo trans ams were a disaster though I don't remember why

 

[nj pheonix]

I just checked.
It would seem owners didn't bother to read manual (big surprise) . They required more frequently oil changes and more importantly, you were supposed to let them idle for 5 minutes before you shut off to let turbo cool so oil wouldn't turn to coke on the bearings.
I guess if it wasn't a POS in the first place they eventually would've worked the bugs out.

 

[savatage1973]

I think the extremely short run 301 turbo trans ams were a disaster though I don't remember why

I'll give you the answer in a nutshell--HEAT... those were shitty engines and when they put them out was in the next generation from mine '77 T/A 6.6-- the turbos were a closed grill and bottom feeding for air-flow. They didn't make that much hp and the heat issue just destroyed them.

I was an "early adopter" of American made turbo cars--and face it, we were a decade behind the Japs and Europeans. I had one of the 1979 Mustang Pace Cars with the turbo 2.3--it still used a carburetor for the turbo to draw through. It made a lot of power--actually more than the 5.0 V8--especially after I cut the head 0.040 and cammed the hell out of it and upped the wastegate. But at least Ford did it right on that one--that little 4 banger had the same radiator as a 351 V8 truck--it stayed cool, but in the the winter, it was fricking cold--start it and let it warm up and the minute the thermostat opened, the temp gauge dropped.

 

[beat_truck]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the infamous Chrysler 2.7 v6. Those were one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever dealt with.

 

[N8Nagel]

I had an Impala with a 3100 for a company car. Ate its water pump at a shockingly low mileage. Sounded like it was getting ready to spit out the valvetrain right off the dealer lot. Hated that car.

Engine didn't actually blow though, which is good and bad - good because I would have been blamed for it, bad because it deserved to die.

 

[noogies]

Let's take a ride back in the "way back" machine--how about adding the Pontiac Sunbird Turbos to the pile?

My wife had one of those when I met her. Ran like a scalded dog and didn't break that I can recall. I don't even remember why we sold it.

 

[MannyE]

I think the extremely short run 301 turbo trans ams were a disaster though I don't remember why

I had one of those and the first thing I did was to remove that POS wheezer of a turbo and replace it with something bigger. I think they were Garret brand...or the one I had put in was a Garret. It was a fun car until I wrapped it around a tree.

 

[savatage1973]

ou were supposed to let them idle for 5 minutes before you shut off to let turbo cool so oil wouldn't turn to coke on the bearings.

Even my turbo Mustang, I was religious about letting it idle for a couple minutes--you just had to. The US was not a world leader in turbo applications. We were way behind the curve and then when we did it, it was high volume, high hp on engines not designed for that stress. Perhaps the best examples of US turbo tech was the Cyclone and Typhoon and the Buick Grand National, and even they were "primitive" by today's standards, but they ran like hell--my 'Stang was no slouch, but it was uncontrolled--the accelerator was like and "on and off switch"--you hit a certain RPM and it was "game on"--once you got it "spoolled up" it was crazy.

 

[onepixel]

The Rotary

 

[nj pheonix]

I had one of those and the first thing I did was to remove that POS wheezer of a turbo and replace it with something bigger. I think they were Garret brand...or the one I had put in was a Garret. It was a fun car until I wrapped it around a tree.

Yeah,
That usually sucks the fun out of he car. I'm glad it didn't take the fun out of you.
I Bought a CRX Si in '86 (no, no stock turbo) There was a company called Muegen or something like that that made high performance aftermarket stuff for them. Then there was another company, maybe 2 in the US that made a couple of different turbo kits. I was a bit spooked by the copy that said lay off the boost until 2nd gear (also something about high boost in 1st gear could blow the Tranny apart)
I think kit came with an oil cooler and an option for a timer that ran the engine (i'm pretty sure you could set) 5,10, 15 minutes to let oil and turbo cool down to prevent failure. If they knew about it then you'd think it would be standard on factory turbos (maybe a small electric oil pump could do it if running the engine wasn't a great idea.