How many, have nursed a knocking Rod home?

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Abodybomber

Abodybomber

Breaking street machines , since 1983.....:)
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Did it with a Datsun 1800.. Just slowed the R.P.M.S U til home,it made ITC( love the Datsun L series Mills ) Swapped the bearings out,back to rolling. Share yours...
 
Our first 67 fish, slant 6. wife drove it approx. 8 miles to work early morn. called me at my job to say its making a helofa racket. I left early enough to get there before she punched the clock and was sitting in the car, idling, jacking around the throttle, no noise when she came out.
I got home before she did. I could here her coming from 2 blocks away. It did poke the #5 rod through the left side of the block later on.
We've never had a drastic failure, in a classic, anywhere other than home / here in the driveway. Lucky I guess.
 
bought a ''rebuilt'' 340 back in the early 80's I put it in my aspen r/t and took of to Halifax Nova Scotia to a zz top concert about 150 miles I knew sumtin wasn't right when we got there . we made it about a quarter mile from home and it started squeaking . I took it apart and the #3 CONNECTING rod cap was put on *** first no need to say more .anyways I fixed it and drove it for years .
 
I had a Gold Duster a 1970 I think with a slant 6. I drove it every day back in the early 80's. Then one day driving home with my 1 year old daughter in a car seat in the back I heard a loud noise and knew I through a rod but it was still running and I needed to get my daughter home so I just kept going very slow. One of my buddies said he saw this car up ahead just smoking like a pig and when he pulled up close to me he said he just started laughing and knew it was me. He followed me home about 5 miles to make sure I made it. The next day I was out side swapping the motor and getting it back ready to drive to work, Just like your's RedFish I through a rod right through the side of the block. I drove that car until the rear springs let loose and came through the trunk, then gave it to my kid brother who welded some brackets to hold the springs again and he drove it for a few more years before it died for good.
Bob
 
when I first got Ginger she had a /6 in her that was on the way out

so I bought a junkyard 360, cleaned it up, repainted and put a small cam in it and dropped her in
(first engine sway I ever did that wasn't the same type engine as came out)

less then 1000 miles later the rod started knocking
no fancy stories about driving it home
I first heard it on my way to dennys and I recognized the sound right away
drove her home without and issue

diagnosed it as the opportunity to rebuild her as a 408 knocking
 
Did that with a chevy 327 for about 50 miles. Talk about being nervous! I was a kid with no way to tow it so just did it!
 
My brother in law had a motor home with a 454 in it. It spun a bearing 20 miles from his house. I told him NOT to drive it but get it towed. He thought it would be ok if he went real slow. When I tore it down, never seen anything like it before. The rod bearings got so hot they melted out of the caps. Crazy as it sounds, I was able to rebuild it but everything that is supposed to be round had to be machined.
 
I melted a piston in a 360 AMC javelin once. It tore several chunks of aluminum off and gouged the heck out of the cylinder wall. I let it cool off and was able to drive it 50 miles to the house. It ran ok but by the time I got it home the rear seal was leaking because the blowby pressurized the crankcase.

I was only 21 years old at the time. Definitely not one of my brighter moments. #-o
 
Back in the 80's my daily was a 72 Scamp with a /6. About 20 miles from home and went to pass a really slow car on the 2 lane highway. Door to door and BANG! Passed him and smoke everywhere. Sounded like a bag of hammers but made it home. #6 rod came right through the block. Swapped motor the next day and starter just spun.... Hmm?

Turns out the rod hit the starter and cracked the trans housing too. When starter engaged the flywheel it spread the crack. Swapped the trans the same day.
 
I nursed a 318 about 12 miles on city blocks, light to light taking it very easy on the throttle. Got home fine, lost torque on one of the rod caps, 1 backed off completely and it was hanging by 1 bolt and a bent cap. Dumped the 318 for a 340! See, all these things are planned by a higher source....I drove my Mazda with a huge head gasket breach between 2 cylinders, it looked siamesed when I pulled it. It knocked so hard that I was sure it was the death of its crank but I nursed it for about 20 miles undr light throttle on the freeway. IT wasnt even worth being towed so I just said F it and drove it home. Put new $6 Rockauto closeout head gasket and it runs fine! I still got it........
 
Finishing it off sounds better! Lol
 

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A lot of these stories are about slant-sixes ;)
My first car was an 11-year-old Valiant with a 198... it leaked more oil than it burned, and I knew it was time to add oil when the red oil light would come on as I took off from a stop. Got away with this for quite a few years. One day I was driving to my parents' house about 70 miles away and part-way there the oil light started coming on.

But it wasn't low on oil. I drove a few more miles and sure enough a rod started knocking. When it got loud enough I pulled the plug wire on that cylinder and drove another 30 miles at 55 mph!

I dropped the pan and removed the injured bearing. No .001 or other undersize bearings available so I put a standard one back in. Still knocked lightly so I gave up and junked it (the body rust was pretty bad by then too).
 
I worked with a guy years ago at a small service station. He had a Chevelle station wagon with a 307 in it. We could hear that thing knockin about 1/4 mile away from the shop....I kid you not. He worked with us about a year. Drove that car every single day. It knocked LOUD I am hear to tell you. He babied the heck out of it everywhere he went and as long as he worked there it never let go. I remember him doing an oil change on it there and all kinda metal came out, lol, but it kept right on runnin.
 
I had a 318 with about 250k onit and one day i was getting a little crazy(burnout's) and when i got done heard a herendous squealing sound i figured screw it do another one! And BAM! Drove home on 7 cylinder's.Tore it down,the piston was sideway's and the rod snapped.
 
Yeah...a lot of these stories are about Slant's..the greatest engine ever made:)

My two stories are actually made it home fails...

First one was a '72 slant Demon I sold to a buddy. Called me one day, said it quit while going up a mountain. Got there, battery cable end is laying on the inner fender with a chuck of block still bolted to it. Cam broke, no going any further with that one.

Second was another '72 slant, this time a 198 in a Valiant. drove to the city 30 miles away, drove around all day, then headed back. Halfway home decided to change radio station because the drums on that one sounded terrible. Turned radio and the "drums" were a rod knocking like hell.

Called a wrecker on that one because I was just a nervous scared kid. Brother drove it another 50 miles and it never blew but sounded BAD.
 
I was following my high school buddy one day and the 300 six in his ferd truck broke. It locked up tight after some banging. The weird thing was the only external evidence was a hole in the bottom of the oil pan where a pushrod had punched its way out. The pushrod was laying in the road and looked fine. It looked like some one had shot a rifle at the pan from the inside. We didn't take it apart so not real sure what caused that. It never ran again.
 
Worked construction with a guy who drove a '62 Chevy pickup and boy was it ugly. Straight 6 motor started knocking one day while we were driving to lunch. He was too cheap to have it fixed so he kept driving it. Ran with that knock for about 3 weeks. Then one day as we were leaving the jobsite he fired it up, made a few rotations and holed the block. Truck was silhouetted perfectly to see the eruption of oil and metal fragments. Swapped in an old 302 with a backhoe where it sat the next week.
 
Had a customer with a /6 dart. Motor was seized. we took a breaker bar and big pipe to free up motor. Put fresh oil in it and it fired right up. Made some noise but then quieted down. He drove the Dart for another year.

My first car 70 Charger 383 started to make some slight noises going home one night. Babied it the 5 miles home. Came out the next morning, started it up and it was knocking really loud. Would run for a couple of minutes then lock up. Let it cool down and it would do the same thing. Poor Charger.
 
Well I didn't nurse it. At the end of two seasons ago my son and I were drag racing the duster with the old 318 in it and I finally wanted to hold third gear all the way to the finish line and I did. On the way home we got on the on-ramp to the freeway it started making a knocking noise and it didn't stop. Then the next day we continue to take it to our storage where we had it at the time and I got in a race with the rice grinder and beat him knocking and all, and then took the motor apart that next winter and hoof - bearings on the 3 - 4 rods we're toast..
 
First car was a L head / Flathead 6 1959 Savoy --- drove it with a blown rear main seal ( the seal failed while highway driving at 70 MPH. Oil pan went dry in short order, engine knocked then seized before I could get off the highway. I let the car cool down for about 40 minutes while my brother came to the rescue with 8 quarts of oil. We put in 5 quarts, the engine started right up and I drove the car home --- with a solid knock. We turned the crank, new mains and rod bearings - new rings and a hone - good to go!

Mopar legendary overbuilt engines !!!
 
I had a '90 Ford Bronco with a 5.0, that had a slight rod knock when I would first start it up. After a second or two of running, it would quiet down once the oil pressure came up. It was like that for about a year. I used to pound the wee out of it, doing a lot of off roading and just general horsing around. One morning, I started it up, and the rod knock was horrendous. I looked at the oil pressure gauge, and I had nothing. It wasn't nice enough to fix, so it got parted out.
 
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