sh1035 said:
Damn and no flames or anything........??? At least if they are going to blow you should get a show out of it or something to tell your buds!
No flames but I sure did put on a show when I blew the engine in my truck. I have an '89 C-1500 that I let my brother use for a year while he was saving up to get his own vehicle. When he returned it I noticed that the engine had a little bit of tap-tap, clack-clack and clang-clang goin on. I asked him about it and he said that it had been doing it for months, ever since he went out mudding (2WD truck with a 402 and a lowered racing stance. Mudding?!?!?!?!?!?! :freak: You did what?

and in the same mudding incident he also managed to snap my speedo cable) with his friends and overheated it to the point of it locking up and wouldn't start up again until the next day. Well at the time I was in the process of getting ready to transfer from Virginia up to Maine in 1 week so I did not have the time to fix it myself. I made arrangments to have a buddy follow me and I was gonna drop it off at the shop, only a few problems the shop closed at 5pm-it was 4:30pm, and I had to contend with the rush hour traffic. I'm toolin down 44 headed for the shop in Va Beach with my buddy behind me and traffic is moving along nicely, then it happened. Smoke started pouring out of the hole that appeared in my hood, the front passenger side of my truck was scraping pavement and I was tossed into a spin. Literally doing 360's in rush hour traffic going down the road. On either the second or third time around I caught my friends eyes and I'm sure you guys/gals can imagine the expression on his face. I managed to go about 1/4 of a mile, without hitting another vehicle or the concrete barrier and finally came to a stop facing my buddy and the oncoming traffic, his car was coated with oil and anti-freeze. He claims I was doing about 85mph when it happened. I ended up having it towed to the shop (which was now closed) and made arrangements to be there when they opened (I wanted to see just how bad the damage was first hand). The first thing they did was replace the 3 flat tires and the tie rod that had snapped. The tie rod looked like something had taken a chunk out of it and just snapped it in two. When they pulled the engine the oil pan was just obliterated, the intake manifold had a huge hole in it and the block had one large hole on the driver's side and a massive hole on the passenger side. There were 3 out of 8 piston rods still in the block, 1 of which was still attached to the crankshaft but the piston had shattered. The end cap was gone, nothing left of it but 1 bolt and the tiny fragment of it that that bolt was holding in place, the oil pump that was attached to the end cap was nowhere to be found. Pieces of the rest of the main caps were recovered from inside the block. Most of the pushrods that were still in the block were all sorts of mangled. Needless to say it was beyond repair.
The following day when I went into work, my chief told me there was something going on in the conference room and that I was supposed to attend. My buddy had gotten a copy of the tapes from the traffic cams and had showed them to everybody in the office. When I walked in everybody stood up and started clapping. Less than a week later my truck had a factory 350 in it, was all fixed up and I was driving to Maine. To this day I have 1 of the piston rods that I picked up off of the highway in my truck as a reminder of that wild ride.
Sorry for the long read but I hope it helps to brighten your day. :roll: