Fairmont engine poofed

Well, that happened.

I had the Fairmont at PIRC last night for Track Night in America, and 15 minutes into the first 20 minute session, one lap after giving the business to a C-4 Vette, I had a sudden, bad miss.

I checked my mirror, and found a pile of white smoke , concentrated on the left side (where my tailpipe exits). I pulled off into the grass and shut it down. Then smoke started coming out from under the hood! I grabbed my tiny aerosol can fire extinguisher, pulled the hood release, and leapt from the driver's seat.

Upon opening the hood, I found that the smoke was steam, and that there was coolant all over the engine. It looks as though maybe a head gasket failed into the water jacket, and blew out the gasket between the timing cover and the block. It appears to have blown only outward, because the oil looks five days old (which it should, cuz I changed it on Saturday).

:/

Glad it isn't worse, sorry about the setback though.

sounds like a minor setback. A gasket, some time to figure out what went wrong, and putting it right. You got off lucky

A buddy is concerned that it might have drank enough to bend a rod or something. I don't know how you'd tell.

snailmont5oh wrote: A buddy is concerned that it might have drank enough to bend a rod or something. I don't know how you'd tell.

rotate engine by hand and measure piston/deck on each cylinder look for any that are appreciably lower.... Also check for slight twist of piston in bore

That only usually happens after you shut it down, cylinder fills with coolant, and you re-start it.

Thanks to both of you for the informaton. Lucky for me, I drug it up on the trailer by hand, so I never fired it.

So, as long as coolant didn't get pumped into the bearings and I don't have a bent rod, the bottom end should be fine, and I should be good to put it back together, correct?

Yup.

Even if you did get coolant in the oil, if it happened quickly you're fine. It takes time for coolant in the oil to attack bearing material. A very long time. You'll be fine.

Coolant in oil only causes damage over time, and mostly if the water isn't boiling off. If the water gets cooked out of the oil fast enough to not make a milkshake, we're talking 100+ hours of run time to really hurt anything.

Just think of it as a nice internal steam cleaning.

Do I understand correctly? A Ford Fairmont was/is faster than a Chevy Corvette? Not to mention a Fairmont with a bad engine no less.

In reply to ncjay:

Well, a c4 vette.

And it didn't have a bad engine until after it passed :)

Did you start teardown yet?

@ ncjay: A Ford Fairmont on 225/50-15s, yes.

@ Wonko: Not yet. I'm waiting to see what the school wants to do.

So far, I've only flushed the coolant out of the engine, and pulled the spark plugs. 1,2,3,4, and 5 were wet. I'm waiting until I get a compression tester to go further.

The compression test had everything in the 175-190 range, except #4, which was zero. I attempted to do a blowdown on #4, but the results didn't really make sense to me. When I expected to hear air coming out of the cooling system, it sounded like it was coming out an exhaust port on the other side of the engine.

snailmont5oh wrote: The compression test had everything in the 175-190 range, except #4, which was zero. I attempted to do a blowdown on #4, but the results didn't really make sense to me. When I expected to hear air coming out of the cooling system, it sounded like it was coming out an exhaust port on the other side of the engine.

It's time to pull that head and look around methinks

Pull the heads. All will be obvious soon. If not, you probably need the practice anyway.

Are valves moving correctly on that cylinder???

In reply to snailmont5oh:

Does the intake have an EGR passage? If so, you probably dropped or bent an exhaust valve.

snailmont5oh wrote: The compression test had everything in the 175-190 range, except #4, which was zero. I attempted to do a blowdown on #4, but the results didn't really make sense to me. When I expected to hear air coming out of the cooling system, it sounded like it was coming out an exhaust port on the other side of the engine.

That's rather weird. Did you have #4 at TDC and firing when you did the leakdown test?

APEowner wrote: That's rather weird. Did you have #4 at TDC and firing when you did the leakdown test?

I actually spun the engine while supplying air to the spark plug hole. I heard it come from the throttle body and go out the exhaust. I thought I'd hear it from the cooling system, but that's when it was wierd. RPM Air Gap (carb) intake, so no crossover.

The heads are coming off in the morning.

Wait. Did you set that cylinder at tdc and then pressurize it? Or just add pressure and turn the motor over by hand?? I am confused.

I got the engine apart this weekend. Anyone wanna guess what the damage was?

I'll make it easier for you all. It was a bent intake valve on #4. Oh, yeah. Also, the block was split right down the middle. And every bulkhead was broken except the rear. It looks like the #4 piston kissed the valve, but no real damage. So, the Scat stroker crank, the forged rods, and the Mahle pistons seem okay. That oughta save some money on the rebuild.

Does anyone have a lead on an aluminum 302 block cheap? :D