Has anyone saved a catastrophic engine failure
 

Saved an engine? As in you heard, felt, or had a Zen like feeling something just wasn't not right and shut it down before there was a catastrophic engine failure.

Or are you like me and keep running the sh!t out of it till it blows up good so you can find the problem without a dought?

I dont think I ever saved one, but I ALWAYS have and ear out and MANY times shut engines down for no reason to just check everything out! I worry too much :lolhit:

That part.

I once had a premonition that a friend of mine was about to go for a wild ride while jumping waves from a large SeaRay..... :eek: :lolhit:

On the serious side, I really think i can feel when a drive is about to let loose. Ive kinda broken alot of them in the past year or so..... :angry-smiley-038: :drink:

Knock Sensors !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+ 1

I been in your boat! All you can hear is engines.

:bigbird: :coolcowboy:

+1,0000000000000000000000000000000000 :evilb:

And that boat sounds wicked!!!

And wild it was brother! I still have nightmares.
Stupid caught on tape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqe4Y...lnk&feature=BF
Kreed your boat and endevor BT is in this video too.

I was refering to my Bullet. Ive only had the Hawk out once when I bought it so far....but I loved loved loved the way it sounded! Really lookin forward to this boat. Are you guys the ones in the video on youtube with the Velocity jumping out of the water?

Yes that's me post 10 I put up the video

yep.....running 4,200 rpms on a poker run and the oil pressure dropped to 0!!!! Engine alarms went off and I shut it down before even coming off plane.

Pulled the motor and dropped the pan to find the pickup tube broke off. Re-installed/welded the tube and put it back together....4 years later still running strong.

I saved a 406 CI small block once.
 

Built a 406 CI small block in 2000, blew it up in 1 month, as I was running way too much timing trying to make a slow hull fast.

The rotating assembly kit, had the block line bored and honed thus requiring a very specific rear main seal that was oversize (this oversized seal was in the original kit, it had a wire tied note stating "this is a special RMS for blocks that have been line bored and align honed).

Needless to say, when I ordered the replacement seal from parts store for the rebild of the blown engine, told them two or three times it was a 'special align honed size RMS' only to have them give me std seal, which was many thousands of an inch too small but you would not notice it by eyeball test.

Assembled engine and ran for several hours in driveway, and then just floating next to dock. Took off with the family up the lake and after about 20 minutes just happened to look down and catch the oil pressure gauge (mechanical) dropping to zero. reached over and turned the key to off and it hit off almost exactly the same time the idiot light lit.

Eight quarts of oil in the bilge, thank goodness I had disconnected the auto float on the bilge pump. It happened about 300 yards away from a marina, got a tow over and purchase a case of oil. filled it and started the trip back to the house, when I saw the needle of the gauge first wiggle, switched off and refilled engine. Took only one refill to get home.

The next week removed and disassembled, could find no damage to the bearings and clearances were perfect. New
Seal and new rings reused bearings and that engine is still running somewhere in upstate.

I have my electric fuel pumps and ignition tied into the oil pressure switch. Port engine died all of a sudden at 5100RPM. Opened the hatch and had oil everywhere. Oil filter had loosened and pumped all of my oil into the bilge. Went home filled engine back up, started and let idle for a while. Shut down, removed filter, cut it open and inspected for shavings. Looked good and ran for another 3yrs without any problems.

motors sound sweet whats with the HOMO muzik :lolhit:

That's awesome!

It's tough to say if I've ever "saved" a motor, but I am pretty good about not using something and investigating the "real" problem behind a tick or squeal or whatnot before beating the crap out of it and breaking it worse. I have a couple of friends that just run it until it breaks and then they find the real problem, and often 2-3 more problems...

I was driving the boat not making the video or music:angry-smiley-038::lolhit::evilb:

U got mail,U got mail,U got mail .....:coolcowboy:

Why thank you your video is way better than mine:drink:

and oh sweeeeeet muzik .LOL i'll send a hundred over , clean out your mailbox. ready, set,go :drink:

Last season we were out in my buddies welcraft with CAT's. We were running across the bay and the luckily i was paying close attention to the semi working gauges! I noticed the temp move just a hair on one of the motors luckily i reached for the throttles and pulled back. by the time i got to an idle the temp peg'd. To the point where the paint changed color on the motor!

Caught it just in time!

a 1/4" coolant line broke and dumped all the coolant!

If it wasnt caught in time it would have melted down!

I’ve caught a couple and I always seem to know when they are going south. Something just doesn’t feel right (I’ve lost more then I want to remember). It’s weird sense, a lot of time the motor or drive will seem loose or too loose when it‘s ready. Most cases I’m going back to the home ramp or dock because of that “something’s not right” feeling and if the damage can be minimized or fixed I will get a tow.
But in most cases the damage has been done. The cam is wiped, the rocker is broken, sompti’ is a knocking. And then there is the time, it’s late October, after dark on a Sunday and you hear “it”. Slam, bang or on fire I’m driving it to the dock. Worry about what happened when I’m on dry land.

Not me...

We all know they run their best just before they go Bang and chit out !!!

If we knew when it was going to happen it would take all the fun out of it. :lolhit:

was'nt that the less then 1 hour motor out of Ill ? you should have them build ya 2 more just for funn:eek:

Well at least the pretty sticker didn't get damaged! :drink:

I wish. Always seems to be at WOT when something small but very, very important fails and all h e l l breaks loose in an instant.

Best one was turning a 20 hour old mark 4 496 stroker into shrapnel 6 minutes into a poker run. Oil pan looked like someone dropped a grenade in and ran. When I unbolted all the perforated sheet metal parts, the block literally fell apart. 13 pieces in total. One ARP rod bolt failed. One stinkin bolt and wiped out 15 grand in an instant.
You just know its not gonna be good when you open the hatch and see lots of 20w50 , and a big piece of cylinder wall in the bilge.

I went the other way. I had a motor that kept loosing oil preasure. Rebuilt it two times same issue every time. Had a few drinks so asked my buddy to drive it home. He said hey the oil presure is dropping on the starboard motor. I looked at him and told him to floor it tell it blew. I did not want anything left to rebuild I was so sick of dealing with it. Blew the motor good and purchsed one from Tank, no issues after that. :D

Actually we have 3 spares....

Nice fu@ing hobby we have....

I did but at a cost.
I dropped a valve seat in one motor which did a good job at making alot of thing junk. So I pulled the other out and went thru it as any good boat owner should do and.....the second engine had a roller lifter that the roller was falling out of. It was not just loose it was all but in the oil pan. Just a revolution or two away from falling out. I have no idea what that would have done at 5500 rpm but im sure I would have had more junk on my hands.

-----Years ago I had a 1979 35 Mistress named "Outlaw Racer". Twin 540s and speedie "3s". Was good for around 65 when everything was right. We were out one day in Nantucket Sound watching a blowboat race. After things ended I fired up the engines which were dry-piped and loud and headed back into Osterville. I thought I noticed a slight miss in the engine that wasnt quite as powerful and throttled down and shut it off and cruised in on one. The next day I yanked both valve covers to check the valve springs and while messing around found that I could spin one spring on the intake side around by hand. Once I found that I knew I was out of my depth and called in a buddy who actually knew what he was doing. When he took the head off he found the most tulliped valve he had ever seen. He couldnt believe it didnt break off. I have the valve sitting on my desk today to remind me how lucky I was........Bill S

COOL BIG Daddy thought it looked familiar like the Waukegan il motors we talked about at Ricks in Key West that did'nt even make it off the start in the Miami poker run :party-smiley-004:i'll send ya some IMRON 555U for that bilge :drink:

A friend decided to replace his stock GM roller lifers in his 540 only to find out one of the shafts was coming out of the roller. he was minutes away from failure.

I saved the broken crank...from a catastrophic failure...does that count:lolhit:

when i was cheap my first time around and re-used and oil cooler..... the boat ran well, ran it for a season. winterized it and i was going to replace the pushrods because i skimped on them and i bent one during the season. i wanted the intake off because i am a freak about finding zero lash. well you should have seen...

But, good thing i was looking at her. i saved the crank. At that point i really didnt care because i was going to do everything the right way not the cheep way. which, my cheap way is a little better than some things i have seen across this site. one season down 45 hours on engine. not a lick of problems. thanks Eddie and Bob!

I cant say I saved it from failure, but I did save it from catastrophic failure I guess....meaning that I was able to reuse most of the parts...

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...119/Piston.jpg
http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/v...ck119/Head.jpg

OUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!:eek:

[QUOTE=endeavor1;3328012]I once had a premonition that a friend of mine was about to go for a wild ride while jumping waves from a large SeaRay..... :eek: :lolhit:
QUOTE]

VV-

Was that a little over compensation because that Searay had a bigger roostertail than you did? :lolhit:

How about having an engine that you wanted to grenade and couldn't? Years ago the wife had to have this new twin turbo Mazda RX-7 piece of chit. Was kind of a neat car for 1995 but had a lot of engine issues the dealer couldn't get right. They wouldn't take the piece of chit back so I decided I'll blow it up. Funny thing was they couldn't get it to run right but that rotary would not blow up, I even drained all the oil out and then took it for a dukes of hazzard style drive. Smoked like a mosquito fogger after that but still freaking ran.

RB