how the hell

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gunbunny

gunbunny

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do you blow up a /6 six?
I don't know how you can do it, but I managed to!
I was driving along, I heard what sounded like the rockers tapping, just as I'm thinking to myself, wow, that's starting to get nasty sounding. POP!
The damn thing locked up tighter than Dick's hat band!
The thing has plenty of oil, It wasn't overheating, it just started rattling and bam!
I'm hoping that the rocker arm came apart and has the timing chain messed up, I'm not to optimistic.
My mom is in the hospital, so finding time to get the valve cover off is at a premium right now.
Boy, if there is a way to muck something up, I'll find it!
 
I had one that bit the dust like that and it was a broken timing chain at full speed......I had a couple pushrods that were bent almost 90 degrees. All over a timing chain...like yours, had plenty of oil and wasn't overheating.
 
Rainy Day Auto said:
I had one that bit the dust like that and it was a broken timing chain at full speed......I had a couple pushrods that were bent almost 90 degrees. All over a timing chain...like yours, had plenty of oil and wasn't overheating.
Click to expand...

Yeh, LOL, be we KNOW 'bout YOU. You were just looking for an excuse to "440" it LOL
 
I'm hoping it's a timing chain. Not that, it's a going to be a joy to repair mind you!
I'm going back to a /6. If it get's a new engine, I'm not putting up with the hassle of converting the "K" member and the thing just got a new exhaust. I also have a known good transmission. So, a slanty is going back!
 
I had a new-ish National cylinder head exchange engine throw a rod out the side of the block. My assumption, having found a rod bolt and nut in the pan, was they didn't torque it at all and it backed off.
 
Ticking rockerts and lock up? Do ypu have hydros in there? My guess is a sheared oil pump gear and seized crank. Kicked rod would bleed oil. I have seen them idle all day long with no oil pan, only that prolong stuff on the crank at car shows....Althpugh they are almost bulletproof, it just takes a larger bullet.
 
pishta said:
Althpugh they are almost bulletproof, it just takes a larger bullet.
Click to expand...
So gunbuuny must be one of the old WWII 1" anti-tank rifle rounds? Ahhh those crazy Russians...

Well good luck with it GB..... let us know.. inquiring minds and all that.
 
My ex blew up a slant 6... :twisted:

She also killed a Neon in 70,000 miles and was the original owner.... :banghead:

three sets of front brakes and rotors, two trans rebuilds (she doesn't use the brakes between reverse and drive when backing out of the driveway), and 7 side view mirrors - mostly driver's side.... Then dead altogether... :color:

Her and her sister completely killed a new minivan in less than 3 years...


Yep, if it can be killed, she'll do it.... :banghead:
 
diymirage said:
I guess you aughta count yourself lucky you managed to limp away from that on then ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah.

I bought the Neon, but I was smart enough not to buy the new minivan she "demanded" just before the divorce... :twisted:

If she couldn't handle a Neon, how was she going to take care of a minivan that's much bigger??? #-o

She bought the minivan with her divorce settlement.... :D
 
They'll poke the #5 rod through the left side of the block too. None will run forever.
Good luck with it.
 
My ex wife seized a 72,000 mile duster up tight in the mid eightys.
I asked her how did lock up, she wanted to see how fast it would go on the interstate.
She held it wide open for like 2 miles.
Back then in WV you could drive for 15 minutes and not pass or see another car.
 
They are worse rod knockers than folks want to let on.

With a slant six it's every literary cliche you've ever heard. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. When it's good, it's very good. When it's bad, it's very bad. My reputation precedes me. Etc...

I've bought 4 Slants that were blown up or knocking. The blown one was the second engine in a '72 Demon. It had kicked a rod out and broken the negative cable off the block.

The first knocker was in a 1971 Valiant. The second knocker was in a '74 Valiant and the third knocker was in a '72 Valiant. Seen a couple more in various junkyards.

I have yet to see a knocking 318 in person.
 
If you lost oil pressure (post #6), you should have seen the oil warning lamp light. It should light when you first turn the key to IGN, before you crank, as a "lamp check". If you haven't been seeing that, you have been living dangerously. Also, the oil pickup screen can clog. I think that was the problem my mom had when I was a kid, driving our ~1963 Valiant wagon, in ~1969. She proved that a slant will go 4 miles w/o oil and then seize forever. But, people thought 6 yrs out a car was great back then. We have become smarter.
 
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.
 
Actually, on one of the knocking slants I bought, I knew most of the backstory:

This one was the 198 in the '72 Valiant. It started life in a 1971 Demon. My best friend from high school was given that car by his great-grandmother in the summer of 1990 to drive to college.

She was the original owner, and at that time it had about 57,000 miles on it. My friend was not abusive as far as driving fast or revving the engine, but he was lax with maintenance and tight with a buck. So, the engine got infrequent oil changes and was run fairly hot multiple times due to a leaking radiator.

When it had about 88,000 on it, the Demon got broadsided and totaled. The engine and trans were still ok so the search was on for another body to swap everything into. This was about Fall 1992.

Finally a fairly nice '72 Valiant was found at a junkyard some distance away and bought to do the swap. I forgot about that one....that's car's slant had also expired. They got everything swapped in and he was back on the road after some brake and front-end work.

He drove that car for about 3 more years until buying an '86 Cutlass in 1995. The radiator in the Valiant had been retained and was in better shape, so the occasional overheating was cured. However, the infrequent oil changes evidently persisted.

So, around the last of 1994(about 140,000 miles) the slant started leaking and burning oil. My friend simply drove until the oil light started coming on during braking, then added a quart. He ran it until about 144,000 when he got the other car. I bought it from him at that point.

I installed a new oil pump to help keep the light off at idle, but I noticed it had a very faint knock. I drove it about another 2,000 miles and one day it suddenly started knocking after driving it 65mph for a couple hours.

The epilogue is that I sold that car as-is, and it got restored and the engine overhauled.

I can understand that engine dying but why so many other VALIANTS?
 
Took the valve cover off and this is what I found.
The really good news, I found a /6 tonight local, I'm going to pick it up, hopefully tomorrow.
 

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Stuck valve, I guess. Try some carb de-gummer down the guides. Not sure why it locked up though if it was just stuck valves.
 
I've been trying to blow up mine. No luck yet. It's been rebuilt with flat top pistons (no idea the compression ratio lol) but other than that its stock. Best motor I've had in a automobile to date, purely because of how much I beat on it and it just keeps chugging along. Sad to hear yours is blown up.
 
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpFK5L9_niA"]1971 Dodge Demon Slant Six First run in 15 years with rod knock - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhxPYIGUvRY"]Slant 6 knocking - YouTube[/ame]
 
If you need a hand with anything shoot me a pm. I have to go into work tomorrow evening but before I'm free after 12.
 
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