blowed up, sir!, lesson learned Options

[lapuwali]

One of the sillier ways to do in an engine. I have dual IDFs, and one of the wing nuts on the air filter housing came off. This allowed the long stud (which I'd neglected to use Loctite on) to back out and fall into the slot between the jets. This jammed the float open.

What I felt was a loss of power on the freeway about 4 miles from my house. The bulk of the remaining trip was downhill, so I backed off and coasted most of the way. It was still running (just on two cylinders), and started smoking after a couple of miles. Mind, all I knew was I'd had a power loss and there were no bad noises. It quit at the bottom of an off-ramp. Hazard flashers on, hood up. Takes me about 10 minutes to figure out what happened.

Oh, and about every 10th car coming down the ramp stops behind me and honks impatiently, rather than just going around (2 car widths beside me). I guess everyone's forgotten what hazard flashers mean, and that if a guy is standing next to the thing with his hands inside the engine bay, that maybe there's something wrong.

After pulling out the stud and draining the carb, hoping I won't hydro-lock, I try to start it. Fires up, runs great. Still smokes though, so I'm sure I did some lasting damage to that pair of rings and cylinder.

Lesson learned? Pull over RIGHT NOW at the first sign of trouble, even if it's only a couple more miles, and even if there aren't any bad noises. Had I fixed the fuel problem right away, I may not be rebuilding the top end of my engine now.

[Rusty]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

You have a great attitude about it. I'm reassured when I see that there are people willing to take responsibility for their own mistakes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif)

Maybe the world isn't going to hell in a handbasket just quite yet.

-Rusty (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif)

[Bruce Allert]

Wished I would've had a warning before the head of #4 exhaust valve snapped off (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) At least you were able to drive home. And, at least mine POPed 200 yds from my drive way after a 20 mile round trip to town (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool_shades.gif) Kinda leads to that old saying..."get a horse" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) But my replacement engine is very close to being in... maybe this week (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif)

.......b

[Brad Roberts]

What color was the smoke ? I cant imagine that short amount of time would kill the rings on that side of the engine.


B

[lapuwali]

What color was the smoke ? I cant imagine that short amount of time would kill the rings on that side of the engine.

I was surprised myself. It's a whitish/bluish smoke, that's definitely coming out of the pipe. I can't imagine what it would be besides oil smoke, and I can't think of what would cause it other than the rings or the guides being trashed. Doesn't seem to be tied to throttle position. It doesn't get worse on the gas, like rings, or off the gas, like guides. It isn't black smoke, like I'd expect if it was burning off a lot of excess fuel (or if it had caught on fire).

I'll be taking a closer look as soon as I get a chance. I may get lucky. After I Loctite in those air filter studs, of course.

[Joe Bob]

What's the compression like?

[Brett W]

Just check the oil and see if it smells like gas. If so change the oil, do a valve adjust, warm the engine up and do a compression test. If those results are ok you might do a leakdown check for more definite look but I doubt you did any major damage.

[dmenche914]

And always carrry a really big fire extingusher, really!

Saved my own car once with one. Minor damage to the paint, but if the extingusher wasn't in the car, it would have been totalled, as would have been the dry trees on the side of the road. fuel line came out of carb, lousy fu*^%$ fitting is what it was. damn close call.


stay safe

dave

[Scott S]

I can relate to this 100%. I was headed up a pretty steep hill fairly late at night. When I pushed in the clutch to shift the engine rev'd like I didn't let off the gas. I was already at a pretty high RPM and I know I over rev'd the thing. I killed the ignition and pulled over. I finally noticed that the carb linkage was not returning to closed - yet there was slack in the cable. I pulled an aircleaner and found that the internal "teepee" that the top bolt goes through had broken off at the welds and fallen inside the carb. I was pretty relieved, but then pissed at how cheap the air cleaner assembly was. I have since repaired this piece at least 4-5 times with failures on both air cleaner assemblies. it was just last year that I replaced them with the burley aluminum units (shows you how dumb I am.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif) )

Glad it worked out ok. I agree with the others, I doubt you did any real damage.

[Gint]

Ouch! Sorry to hear it. That's why my truck got a junkyard $200 350 special. I mistook the rattling shifter for the rod knock that was developing instead of pulling right over.

Whaddyagonnado? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) Fix it and move on...

[lapuwali]

So, after some time of just poking at it for an hour or two each week, and after fixing the unexpectedly leaky rear brakes, it runs again, smoke-free.

My first couple of test drives post "blow-up", it continued to smoke quite a bit, but finally stopped on its own (yes, I have oil in it). Changed the oil twice, filter once. I think what happened was the fuel pouring in washed enough oil into the exhaust that it just continue to burn off for awhile.

Now I just have to put a new exhaust on (this one is leaking at the muffler), and fully sort the carburation (still a tad rich).

[Jake Raby]

When you munched the piston some oil was transferred into the exhaust and muffler... It had to burn away.

[lapuwali]

Oh, I didn't appear to munch a piston, or anything else. I was afraid I had, but it appears (as others assured me) that there were no lasting effects from the problem. Just the scary-looking smoke.