[Ronbob]

My new 427 blew at the track Friday night. The bottom of the oil pan is dented and it has a 2" hole in the pan on the passenger side at the front of the motor. I had a 5 trips to the track on it before friday. I have not touched it yet to see what happened. I will post some pics as I do the autopsy. I just hope the damage is limited to the bottom end so I can reuse as much as possible on the next motor.

 

[PSIG]

Bummer, dude. At least you'll know what happened and what to do differently on the next one.

David

 

[dennis112]

Sorry to hear about this. Having lost a motor too this year, I feel your pain.

Who built yours?

 

[Ronbob]

The motor was built by pacific performance products/ ford performance solutions. I bought the motor from the guy that had it built. He came on hard times and had to sell it. It was only broken in and run on a dyno by the company that built it. He never even got it installed in his car.
I pulled a head and the top end looks ok. Only slightly bent intake valve on #1 cylinder. The rod on that cylinder is obviously broken. The piston has some slight dents in the top and is twisted in the bore. The cylinder wall is severely scratched and dented. As far as I can tell without pulling the pan the cam seems to b ok. As soon as I can I will be pulling the motor and doing the autopsy to see if I can pinpoint what happened. I am guessing that best case I will be getting a piston and rod and getting a sleeve pressed in.
I am thinking now that I am going to have to completely dismantle the engine anyway that I might upgrade to h beam rods so this doesn't happen again.

 

[dennis112]

Are there other marks on the head that might show some piston contact? Any suspicion of hydraulicing?

I hope that it is a simple fix for you. Keep us updated.

Good Luck

 

[AT68]

My new 427 blew at the track Friday night. The bottom of the oil pan is dented and it has a 2" hole in the pan on the passenger side at the front of the motor. I had a 5 trips to the track on it before friday. I have not touched it yet to see what happened. I will post some pics as I do the autopsy. I just hope the damage is limited to the bottom end so I can reuse as much as possible on the next motor.

oh man.. that's awful. What rpm were you spinning it?

 

[PSIG]

I am thinking now that I am going to have to completely dismantle the engine anyway that I might upgrade to h beam rods so this doesn't happen again.

Be sure to finish your analysis first. The rods may have nothing to do with the failure directly. Hold any assumptions and look to prove any guesses wrong until you can be 100% confident the answer is right. To ensure that, be very methodical about your tear-down. Don't just pull it apart - test torques, clearances and alignments on everything as you go so you don't accidentally remove the one clue that proved everything. You didn't assemble it, so it's all unknown to you. Parts you assume are not involved have a funny way of becoming part of the problem in ways you don't expect.

David

 

[Ronbob]

Good advise, thanks David. This is my first experience with a teardown on a broken motor where I am trying to figure out what happened.
I pulled the other head last night and the #5 rod is broken also.
Both pistons hit the head and there is damage to the pistons just above the rings so both pistons are no good. The other head looks fine but I haven't tried to remove any valves yet.
No, I won't be buying anything till I know that the rods were the problem, I was just thinking that if it was a rod that gave way I don't want it to happen again and that H beams would be cheaper than another new motor.
I am not sure what rpm I was at when it blew. I have the 6000rpm chip in my msd box and it was not hitting the rev limiter but I think it was close. Probably about 5800 which is where I shift cause the shift light came on the same time the engine shut off.

 

[AT68]

H beams are a good option. Overkill is the best policy.

 

[Ronbob]

Small update: Pulled all the bolts out of the pan and dropped it as far as I can without pulling the motor. The block is shot. A chunk of the block just above the oil pan rail about the size of a golf ball fell out as soon as the pan dropped down.
I will be borrowing a hoist from my neighbor in the next week or so and will update again as soon as I learn anything new.

 

[mustangboy]

That sucks but I can't say I am surprised..When you have a hole and dents in the oil pan there is usually lots more damage inside.