Sigh,...well it appears I am once again pulling the motor,this time it maybe terminal.Judging by the bits of piston/piston ring that came out of the intake manifold once it was removed,dont ask me how some ended up in there,the spark plug on #4 is mangled,and motor is bound up and will not turn.Amazing that there is no external signs of damage(was expecting maybe a holed block??)I have not actually pulled it apart yet,but it is not looking good,wondering what the extent will be.....I have no idea what caused this,as I was not logging tune at the time,I did not here any detonation and I run my tune on the rich side,and conservative timing for safety(12.0-12.7 afr). I am really becoming tired of this crap,never mind the giant toilet bowl into which money gets flushed every few 1,000km.
So to the guy thinking of the v8 swap,dont know,but I think you would have less trouble with a built red block,even if you drive it hard, than what I am having with this steaming pile of... Quoting Forrest gump " I am not a smart man", so I will try yet again to repair/replace,however If you are interested in copying the motor/tranny mounts,now would be a good time......Alex.

ugh, that sounds horrible man, sorry to hear. reminds me of every time (5? 6?) matt had to take his V8 apart (well, just the top end i guess) when it was eating cams.

It's sad, but I only ever hear when your having trouble with the car, Alex.

If that's like my V8 240, that would be all the time.

Some quick pics from the "wrecker of all things Ford".... tune in next week to see the amazing finale to this edge of seat thriller. This is going to be an expensive remake of the original......

4 AND 8???

My best guess is,looking at the cyl heads is #4 fell apart first(there is quite a lot of "shrapnel" in 4 combustion chamber)which caused pieces to foul up #8,then 8 crapped out, as 8 chamber is relatively untouched, as far as damage goes the whole short block is toast,looks like I will be able to clean up #4 chamber, that with a couple of new valves,should have the Heads as good as new. I have a couple of other shortblocks,I will have to see which one is better(needs the least amount of work).....although my days of "stroking" are probably over,as I will most likely just put together a plain old 5.0,(+/- $3500 7000km short block boat anchor is enough) Hmmm... the Afr 205,s will probably be a little much cyl head for a 302...............Alex.

Craig could weld that back together and have it as good as new for you

But really, I feel for you, have been in that situation a few times.

Hmmm, no guarantee on the pistons holding together after welding what were you doing to that engine? Looks like things were generally not all that happy - there is nothing wrong with running things a little closer to stoich - pig rich isn't helping things out. I've seen motors on nitrous do things like that, but you'd have to rev the piss out of it NA to see that kind of damage. What's up with the marks on the exhaust side of the rest of the pistons?

I don't see any reason that a well built 5L shouldn't give years of reliable service even if thrashed mercilessly. I feel your pain.

Apparently,NA motors make there best power around 12.7-13.1,and made it best dyno power @ round 12.8, my engine was not happy anywhere near stoich,10.6 compression probably had something to do with that.Wasnt even spinning that high either,didnt even get to 5000rpm,the last log on the tune I have loaded(done not an hour earlier)shows I am close to the target from about 3500rpm and up,with a dip to 12.00 between 3000-3500,and timing was never above 28degrees,and got there progressively, so I am kinda not leaning towards detonation. As an aside....I am hearing some good and bad,in regards to Hyperteutectic pistons(what I had) they are hit and miss with quality??. Some say they will not use them,as they can be fragile,although this was an Eagle rotating assembly made in the US,you have to wonder where they get some of there components from.And no,I didnt run Nitrous/hairdryers on it either,so I guess this was an expensive mistake. Alex.

Ouchie!

Well I still have those Eagle I-beam rods and KB hypers if you want 'em cheap, plus I've got my camshaft, probably an oil pump or two, etc.

Eagle rods are made in China...or at least that's what I thought. Good quality from what I understand. When I first saw it I thought nitrous, the crowns of the pistons do look like they were experiencing some detonation. I'm interested the ones that didn't grenade. It doesn't sound like you were flogging it that badly - sheesh why do these things happen to good people?