how the hell

Since we're sharing stories about blowing up Slanty's,I thought I'd share mine...years ago,probably around 1990 or so,I spotted a tired looking tan 73ish Duster with expired plates in a back alley behind a rooming house a couple blocks from where I was living at the time.I knocked on a couple doors and managed to find the owner who wanted to sell so I offered him $50 and he jumped at it.I probably could have gotten it for free but whatever.The odo was showing around 40k and he said it had probably gone around a couple times and it looked like it hadn't seen much love for a long time but the body was still pretty decent and he said it was running when he parked it so I figured I'd take my chances.IIRC it had the 198 S/6,auto trans,and a white interior with the fold down back seats.

I come back the next day with a battery,some gas and some tools to get it running and lo and behold,it starts and runs pretty good,the trans seems to work ok and the tires hold air so I take my chances and drive it home.Once home,I do a few things like an oil change,low buck tune-up and go over some stuff like brakes,etc to make sure it was somewhat safe to drive and I use it for a winter beater for several months before selling it to a buddy who needed cheap wheels.

My buddy was using it for his commuter and all around driver for awhile and one weekend we're out of town out on the highway and some yobs in what must have been a 4 cyl Firebird come up beside us and want to race.My buddy obliges and mats it and off we go...we manage to pull ahead of these clowns and I recall seeing the speedo hit about 105 and kinda top out there and I'm thinking this thing ain't gonna last long flat out and sure enough I see a puff of smoke come out from under the back of the hood and hear the distinct sound of metal skipping along pavement at high velocity into the distance...the Dustbucket slows to about 85 and the Firebird goes on by but we keep going and there's no oil light or any other indication anything is wrong.
I tell my buddy we should stop somewhere and take a look so we pull into a gas station a couple miles later and pop the hood...it running a bit rough but everything looks normal,the oil level is good,and there's no sign of leaks or lost coolant.I look around more a bit more thoroughly and then spot something...there's a hole about the size of a small fist down low on the block behind the starter motor where you'd never see it without really looking.

Best we could figure,the old Duster must have ejected the #6 rod straight out the side of the block and up and over the starter without hurting anything else which is some kind of minor mechanical miracle.It's also amazing that none of the other shrapnel or the piston didn't get jammed into anything.I wasn't even leaking oil or appear to lose any oil pressure.We continued on with our trip like nothing happened not believing our good luck and my buddy drove the car on 5 cylinders for a couple more weeks until he found something else.I can't recall whatever happened to the car,it would have been interesting to pull the pan off and do an autopsy.