I grenaded my slant 6

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chinze57

chinze57

Push Button tranny and a Slant 6 that'll never die
Joined
Nov 6, 2019
Messages
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Location
Georgia, USA
Well it's been about a half a year since I've been on the forums. I've been busy with college and haven't found time to be doing much with my car since I finished with what I was building this summer. I decided I'd go home and get my dart for the weekend and take it down to Georgia Southern for a game (about 3.5h each way). Checked my fluids before heading out and kept an eye on everything while I was driving, maintained 40 psi of oil pressure the entire time, and was sitting on the cool side of my thermostat. Got about 3 hours into the trip in the middle of nowhere and heard a slight clacking sound for a couple seconds. Looked down at my oil gauge and watched it dip to 30 psi and thought, "holy **** something's about to happen" and then there was a big old boom and smoke coming from the engine bay while going 70 down the interstate.
Got control of the vehicle, safely got it to the side of the road and shut off the car. Looked in the engine bay and there's a big ol' hole in the side of the block and everything's flowing out of it.
I walked behind the car in the emergency lane about 200 feet and found a couple pieces that had come out.
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Ouch. What a shame. 70MPH had it spinning pretty good. Is it a 225?
 
Seems like the front rods always break the block. The back ones just hang on banging away till they seize.
That sucks.
 
Guess you have to change your tag line.

Someone was offering a free slant on here a week or so ago, maybe they are near enough to work?
 
The engine block looks pretty clean. Was it rebuilt recently? If so about how many miles were on it?
Looking at the pieces in the photo, is the shinny piece a part of the piston from the piston pin end?
It would be interesting to see more of the carnage pieces to see where the failure initiated.
 
I saw one like that and the guy said he drove it home with the rod through the hole. Said it made a helluva noise going down the road!
 
65 Dartman said:
I saw one like that and the guy said he drove it home with the rod through the hole. Said it made a helluva noise going down the road!
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Believe me, I almost got to the point where I would've done it. Waited 5 hours for AAA and they never came, ended up having to get my own service.
 
my68barracuda said:
The engine block looks pretty clean. Was it rebuilt recently? If so about how many miles were on it?
Looking at the pieces in the photo, is the shinny piece a part of the piston from the piston pin end?
It would be interesting to see more of the carnage pieces to see where the failure initiated.
Click to expand...
Yeah the engine was rebuilt this year, maybe 2,000 miles on the engine. That shiny piece is what I found sitting with those two parts of the block on the side of the freeway, i think it's from the piston pin end, not too sure yet. As soon as I can I'm going to try and figure out what happened
 
Where in Georgia are you? I have a few slants.
 
**** that blows!!!! sorry to hear but hey you can probably reuse alot of your parts for the next build.
 
Got a 37000 mile 71 slanty 225 with trans and rear end cheap if you need one, but I'm in NH.
Pulling it out this winter, time for that dang stroker to go in.
 
I was taught not to break my toys.

Wonder what the cause of failure was.
 
Welcome to the very exclusive I-destroyed-a-slant club. I trashed one way back in the 80's, due to wildly negligent ownership (ran it out of oil and water about 20 times apiece before the "last" time.
 
Bring it to me and we'll tear it down and see if any of it can be saved. I have several here we can build you another one.
 
That mighty nice of you Rob! Looks like the piston came apart and jacked the rod out the block. Amazing, members got 200K mile slants and your decides to go at 2K.
 
pishta said:
That mighty nice of you Rob! Looks like the piston came apart and jacked the rod out the block. Amazing, members got 200K mile slants and your decides to go at 2K.
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Yep, looks that way to me too. Like the piston stuck in the bore. This is 100% speculation, maybe it dropped a valve, which jammed the piston, which allowed the small end of the rod to break the crankcase.
Would be interesting to see the rest of the parts.
 
halfafish said:
Welcome to the very exclusive I-destroyed-a-slant club. I trashed one way back in the 80's, due to wildly negligent ownership (ran it out of oil and water about 20 times apiece before the "last" time.
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I killed one In the mid 90s.. Tampa to Jacksonville. Almont made Gainesville, she shut off on i-75... exhaust manifold GLOWING, waited, fired her up, then got about 10 miles, and Done... think the dipstick leaked all the oil. That wad a 73 Duster, I had my 63 Dart gt at my grandparents in Gainesville. Grandpa drug it back the next day ( behind his 5th Ave) told me the dart would take a stick of Dynamite. I told him my band was Blasting Cap,and half of us are here took everything off the Duster, and put it on the Dart. Drive home, then back and forth to Orlando a few times for work
 
We drove a 71 Duster from Texas to So. Cal in the summer and then for 4 years after that. I dont remember anything going wrong with that car. 3 speed manual reverse N pattern with 5 year old me shifting it between my legs, sitting between Mom and Dad! Good times.....
 
First, that sucks. I set a rod knocking in a slant 5, but never windowed one. Sucks double on a fresh build too!!

Second, pistons made in.....?

The time mine popped, a guy said there was a oil passage in the crank that was undersized on some slants that caused the rods on that journal to go south. Anyone else hear that?
 
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