I have a firebird with a 2.8 V6 that I have done everything short of jumping rows of school busses with and it still starts and get to me to work every day. Had a radiator hose burst once and was completely out of antivifreeze 30 miles from home. Thinking that it would blow and give me an excuse to put something else in I gunned it the entire way home. Granted it was probably 10 degress outside but I made it home and it started and drove to the parts store the next day for a new hose/fluid. Anyone else have stories about the one that just wouldn't die?
My '63 Electra got me where I was going 95% of the time, but it wasn't bulletproof. I believe my grandpa had a truck he was trying to blow the motor in. He would go around winding the thing all the way in second and just drive everywhere like that. I don't think he ever got it to pop.
About two years ago I hit a deer on my way to work at about 5:30 am one day, 4cly front drive daily driver. knocked out the radiator, battery, thermostat housing, a/c, grill, left fender, shoved hood into the windshield. I drive it home about 20 miles. I put it back together and am still driving it.
I have a 429 motor that came out of and early 70's mercury that has been in 4 demo derby cars, and 1 demo derby truck and still runs better than any motor I have ever ran. When we got the car, it had 120,000 miles on it. Amazing motor, we named it "Mean Mo," and it is a mean running sob!!
My sister had a 76 Granada in high school. She drove it home one day to tell my dad that the light on the dash came on. When? Before school..., drove it to school, to work and back home with a busted lower radiator hose...still ran great for years to come.
I had a '64 Ford step-side pick up with a 223/4 speed combo that was unstoppable. I ran it until the compression was so low it wouldn't pull hills. The starter turned it over so fast, it sounded like the plugs were out of it. I sold it to a local who drove it about a week and GAVE it to the local wrecking yard! They used it as a yard truck for a couple of years before retiring it to a place of rest next to the back fence. I tried to buy it back from them but they had turned in the title and couldn't sell it. Damn good truck!! Ed
I had a 1950 chevy biz coupe, 216 mil.... I was at a red light waiting for the green...green came on and I let the clutch out...a loud boom eminated from engine and things started rattling....I hopped out and popped the hood and saw the inside of the engine rotating from the outside and a large amount of antifreeze and oil pouring on the ground.... I figured that the engine was toast anyway and figured I'd make it closer to the house fore it died....I drove it 15 miles to the house and started to pull in the drive....pops was outside and told me I wasnt f-in up his driveway (twas when I was still livin at home many moons ago) so I pulled it in the dirt side yard. We opened the hood again and the engine was so hot you could see the warp in the head and the exhaust ports and manifold were glowing red...you could see the valves. I shut it down and walked away...it took bout 12 hours for everything to cool down. Went out the next day to crank it and the engine was seized (surprise surprise) Pop and me hooked the truck on it to drag it in the drive to yank the engine, while pulling it I put it in gear and popped the clutch, the engine freed up and fired again....sounded like ass but still had good power. had it not been for the window in the block I woulda kept driving it....
Bought a 1964 holden ute while holidaying on Aussie east coast 15 years ago,$2,000 with a smokey motor (perfect soon as this thing blows i'm doing it up).Trucked it 2,800 miles to the west coast. Daily driver 15 years now,i'v had to get new tyres so far.Same damn motor... My Son bought it off me last weekend to finance hot roddin the deco truck in my avatar. Old holdens are tuff to kill but my son might manage it.
I had a little 2.8 GM that I ran home once on three good tires and a flat because I had a lugnut rounded off and could not change the tire. Got hot, so I stopped once to let it cool down. It got flooded after I stored it when I got something better, but I put a battery in it and it still ran even after that. The 235 in my '50 Chevy will still run even though it's had a lot of water and antifreeze in the oil. And mouse piss, given the nest I pulled out of the rocker arms. And one of the professors where I went to college, had a sort of hobby of taking old beaters and putting a brick on the gas pedal and seeing how long they'd go before they blew up. A buddy who went a couple years ahead of me told me they had like a '77 Chevy Nova with a 250 six. They drained the coolant, they drained the oil, they put the coolant in in place of oil... and it kept going, it would go until it got so hot the expansion would make it stall... let it cool and it would go again. I knew a kid who had a beater '77 Monte Carlo that was still running even after it blew a rod out through the oil pan, too. I don't know how he managed to get it to do that, but I saw it running still. 350 Chevy.
Years ago I had a 58 Chevy wagon that was stripped down and going to the junk yard. It still had a grungy 348, 2 barrell motor in it that still ran. Sinse it was going to the yard anyway, I decided to blow the moter up. I put a brick on the excelerator pedal and ran for cover. That thing screamed for the longest time. Smoke was rolling from everywhere, then it just started losing revs, then just stopped. Damn, no big explosion. The next day when the wrecker showed up, I turned the key, just to confirm it was locked up....and you guessed it, it started right up!!!!!!!!!
In high school I had a rusted out 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 with the poly 318. That car was abused. I took out some fences, road signs. Tore open the radiator and drove with now coolant for about 5 weeks in the summer. The engine would get so hot that if i shut it down I had to wait for it to cool to start it up again. Tranny leaked really bad. Had to put tranny fluid in all the time. Would run it super low for days before adding more. Made minimum wage at the time. Beat that car to death for 6 months before the 727 torqueflite finally quite on me. Sold the carcus after that.
Anything with a Chrysler slant 6. They keep going forever. Maybe not well, but they do keep going My '92 Aerostar won't die either, so he's headed to a family that can make better use of him than me trying to kill him. I could try to kill it but that seems like such a waste...
Had a 60 Falcon that I decided needed a 283 chevy. Took it out to blow it up ... ran down hill 45 in first, maybe 75 in second, repetedly, and couldn't blow it up. Gave the head to a college buddy, all the valves wre wicked bent but it never blew...Ran pretty good with the 283.
I had a 318 out of a 73 Road Runner that I used in a few different beaters, probably put 100,000 miles on it (it had about 150,000 when I pulled it) beat on it, wound the pee out of it, put a timing chain on it once, Offy 4 bbl. intake and headers, just ran really nicely. Sold it to my buddy to put in his Duster with a 4 speed - one week and he scattered it, like really bad. Missed second with his foot on the floor.
I have the slant 6 in my '87 Dodge pickup (work truck),it has a bad ring or something in cylinder 1 (haven't really looked into it much) and runs like crap but still runs and takes me everywhere I need to go.
I had a '68 327 in my '65 Belair wagon. I'd routinely run it until the oil light came on and add 2 quarts and be on my way. Once the oil light came on and STAYED on. It developed a dead miss suddenly. I figured, that was that. I pulled over and added 3 quarts of oil, started it up and it ran with the miss and the light was still on. I was in a undesirable area and figured I'd try to get as close to home as possible before it blew. I got maybe a 1/2 mile, the light blinked and went out, the motor smoothed out. I did change the oil right after, out of guilt. The motor sat in the car until I was in a bad pinch for a stock car motor for my Nova. I had to change everything over from the 396 to the 327 in a week. I got the motor tuned well enough to take the car to the track, untested. It was supposed to be a 30 lapper, but it got changed to a double point 50 lapper at the last minute. No qualifying and no warm up since it had rained earlier in the evening. Positions were picked out of money earned and I was way down and got the pole with an unknown combination. Upon the green flag, I took off only to find the biggest bog in the world. I went from 1st to 20th in one lap until I learned to stomp the gas earlier in the turns, this would be suicide with a healthy combo. I went from 20th to 5th place by the time 50 laps was up. The motor came out and was sold to a local guy who built boat motors. I was at his shop the next week and the motor was apart on a bench. The crank looked and measured up perfectly. I was amazed. Bob
I had another amazing engine. It was a Pontiac 215 (not the OHC) in a '65 Chevy truck. It blew oil from every pore and orifice. I would fill up the oil and check the gas regularly. It was so bad I poured waste oil into it from work, strained through a shop rag. A trip to the beach and back would consume 3 quarts combined by leakage and blow by. It was time for a 283 conversion and I figured I'd scatter the 6. I drained the oil, removed the fliter and took it for a ride. I went around the block (a mile circuit) about 10 times with nary a peep out of the thing. It had the same rattle it always had, no change in anything. I quit out of boredom and the fact that since it was so loose and played out, it just may never blow or I'd be out of gas first. Bob
Always knew it was time to add oil to an old Bronco with a 300 I6 when it started to clatter and knock. I never changed the oil, just added drain oil (I worked at a boneyard at the time) to it as needed. I hear it's still plowing snow somewhere.
i had 84 jeep cj with a 258 that had over 130000 miles ,it lost oil presure going down the highway,started knocking VERY hard. i drove it for 20 miles wide open in second gear..wont blow!! it got too loud and the shifter about to beat the floor boards out..so i stopped....
I had a 400 2bbl Pontiac in a 'bird. It wouldn't die. I didn't want it to either, it was just an old reliable. The car rotted away everywhere (Michigan does that to us) but it never EVER failed to start and run. Had decent power too. If I recall 15.65 @ 86mph in the 1/4 mile from a stone stock 3.08 geared nuthin car. There had to be in excess of 200K on the thing when I sold it and in all that time it never used more than the 1st qt of oil in 500 miles and that was it. I got to where when I changed the oil I just left out 1qt, I know, weird but true. Great car...
The Jalopy Journal
