The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 3 blown rods. Engine finished ?

Is this engine salvagable ? Not sure what kind of damage this causes. Took off the valve covers,...two are gone and one is pushed right up. Can this thing be rebuilt or salvaged for any parts ? Thanx. Cheerz !

What does "blown rod" mean?

well the rods that are sitting under the rockers. For the intake and exhaust valves.

It looks like you are referring to the push rods between the rocker-arm tappets and the lifters (most likely, behind the cover plate on the distributor side of the engine, if you are talking about a 216/235/261)? One would not just disappear; however, I guess someone could have removed one. Typically, a push rod bends or breaks, or drops out of place due to a stuck valve. A head with stuck valves might be rebuildable (or even loosened up) but the best way to check this out is to remove the head and inspect it (or have a machine shop inspect it)..

You would have to inspect a variety of things in order to evaluate the usefulness of an engine.

Do you know anything about the history of the engine?

Was is stored outside?

What year and size of engine is it? You mention valve covers; is it a V8 or V6?

Tim

two push rods gone? which means they likely broke and have fallen into the block. one way or another, a complete disassembly is in order, to hopefully determine what/if something else caused the rods to go. i recently came across a 261 in a salvage yard that had an almost identical problem, and i'd noticed that someone had removed the oil filter and had a hose passing from one port to the other, but the hose was kinked/limited oil flow. ?

Hy IsolationRide, any chance of some pictures, I'm confused by your description.

Sure I,ll get some photos in. Basically theres 3 rods gone and three nifty holes blown out my oil pan.

Tim.....1969 350 4 bolt main. Top end totally overhauled. all new gaskets, wires etc. When the oil pan was off he re torqued the bolts without a torque wrench,...in fact on every bolt there was he did not use a torque wrench.

I'd plan to replace both the motor and the mechanic. What else did he touch?

Ok, I AM SO CONFUSED!!!! You removed the valve covers and are missing 1 "rod?" or "pushrod". My guess is pushrod. 3 holes in the oil pan could be the reason for missing 1 pushrod, but more likely a broken rod caused the holes in the pan and broke the camshaft. The pushrod missing was a result of a broken camshaft. Just guessing but excessive rpm's may be the culpret. My guess also is if the cam is broken the block is probably toast.

Just to add to this interesting discussion, there is no reason for retourquing bolts on the bottom end of an intact engine. That doesn't make any sense.

Boy you had me going there at first. I was going to congratulate you on throwing 3 rods at once. I could never throw more than one at a time.

Toyvo has got it right, I've seen it before. A connecting rod came loose and smacked the cam breaking it. If you drop the pan you'll find your missing pushrods, lifters, the broken section of camshaft, and who knows what else. And chances are the block is scrap now too.

John

I 've read this thread thru a couple of times and two things strike me.
1. it's a V8, you know, one of those bent motors and while not trying to be picky please remember this is primarily a site for inline GM sixes.
2. due to the confusion of the language used perhaps it would be a good idea to have a Common Terminology article so hopefully all would understand what some folks are attempting to say.(assumes they would use it) This seems to happen more often as the site grows and it may be really useful to some newbies.

If anyone wants to undertake such a project it would make another good feature to an already great site.

Just my 2 cents worth. What do you think?

So move it to the HighPo Shop.

You don't need to spend any more time on this motor, just pull it and junk it. Find a good used replacement (or new crate motor) to drop in. I'm sure you've already come to this conclusion.

You need to stay far away from your mechanic, don't buy your replacement motor from him. It sounds like he has a high opinion of his 'torque rod arm', you don't need this!!

James

wouldn't it be more appropriately moved to the 'big bolts'?

I think this one deserves a category all its own- - - - - -"Junk Bolts"! If that "mechanic" isn't sucking soup through a straw because his broken jaw is wired shut, he should be!

BTW, I managed to bend, but not break all 8 connecting rods on a 327 engine once, but it happened at 7,000 RPM at the end of a dirt track straightaway when the engine swallowed an intake valve, holed the cylinder head, and flooded the engine with coolant!
Jerry

Hy 53moneypit and guys, I thought this was a site for pre 73 Chev and GMC trucks, since the V8 was introduced in 55 that means that for 17 years of our published mandate a truck could come equipped with a 6 cylinder or a V8. So when did we become primarily concerned with 6 cylinder engines? Did I miss an announcement???

Yeah! What he said!!!

What if it is a stock v8,seems like the right place to be posted.

it's neither here nor there to me, but does stock v8 matter? the parameters are; 'big bolts' = 1-1/2ton or larger. what's a school bus come in at?

I dunno, regardless of whether it's a Big Bolt or not, we're in Engine and Driveline aren't we?

In any case IsolationRide, it's sounds like your engine is just a big paperweight now.

we're in Engine and Driveline aren't we?

correct. i was just mentioning that there is a subforum that's specifically for the larger trucks. and i'm guessing that stovebolt.com had a reason for that. maybe to keep out any 'confusion' when someone posts about their engine, so that if it's asked here, it's known to be a 6cyl. not that it matters much

Not trying to be contrary here rednate, but I assumed that the Big Bolts section would be mostly for topics that are specific to Big Bolts (which the engine that is the subject of this discussion, is not) and I never assumed this forum was only for 6 cylinders since many of our trucks came with V8s.

The engine forum (here) would seem to be the appropriate place for questions about any normally-configured original-sized engine (up to 1972). If the engine is on/from a big-bolt and the question is specific to a part only found on a big-bolt, then the question might get better responses there.

At Stovebolt.com, a big-bolt refers to the truck, not the engine size ("For the bigger trucks. Got a ton and a half or bigger truck?").

yeah, i follow and agree with ya og, and tc just specifically clarified it

Good! Now we can get on with the business of telling IsolationRide his engine is tost!
The good news is any old small block chevy V8 will fit in there, some with matching mounts.

Yeah its toast alright. I took the oil pan off to find thousands of pieces of what used to be TWO pistons. This mechanic claims 30 years of doing the work. I call bulls**t. Scrapyard.