Ran When Parked

Or so the story goes....
Pulled an Imperial 392 out of a field of sorrow a while back.
I've had the heads off for a while now, and had seen that one of the cylinders had cracked from water sitting, as well as lots of rust in some of the others. No big deal, ran when parked then was set out in the field with no cover - shit happens.
Started tearing the rest of the block down today, and found an A-1 casting - jackpot!
Pulled the pan off and started unbolting rods so that I could get the crank out to pound out the pistons, and saw this .




Cylinders 1 and 7, respectively.
I've never seen anything like it. No damage to the pistons, so I don't think it was interference. Valves are fine, timing chain and gears are fine. Whatever it was, that must have stopped QUICK.

I'm guessing hydrolock..... anyone care to take an educated guess as to what happened?

 

Wow but that lets you know that they are tough just not invencable.

 

blown head gaskets-water in the cylinders and Hydroylic the motor-My guess-fuel will do the same thing

 

WOW! Those are some pretty damn cool paper wieights if you ask me.

Either someone ran that car into some deep water, or more than likely the headgaskets/ intake manifold gasket let go and dumped a lot of coolant in there in a very short amount of time.

Either way... that's nasty!

My rule for the ol' "ran when parked" deal... is I pop the hood, and if I can't turn the engine over by hand, or with a ratchet on the crank bolt, I call BS. lol...

 

i second the hydrolock theory

 

Beautiful examples of an I beam in compression failure.

Water will do that.

 

That is a hydrolock. I have a O/T motor in my garage with a piston and rod that looks the same way. Oh, and by the way that motor got water in it when a friend ran it through a huge water/mud whole.

 

I'm guessing a big puddle. Would it even be possible for a stock water pump or headgasket failure to pump that much water in a chamber in one, or only a couple revolutions?

 

i would say hydrolock also.. or else or its some new high tech bent rod design... those are rare, and ususally you have to pay extra..

 

I know it's off topic, but I rebuilt a Ford 4.2 V6 in a '97 F150 for a friend of the family. Ford admitted that it was a defect motor, and the intake manifold gasket was to blame. It looked like yours when his intake gasket went.

It IS possible that it could've got that much water in a cylinder to do that. I don't have a firing order on me right now... but if the two cylinders were opposing and would be on the intake stroke at the same time, then they would've sucked water in at the same time and compressed it at the same time.

Also if the manifold gasket went... it's not water being pushed into the cylinder, it's being sucked in. that's a lot of suction.

 

That first one didn't bang the cylinder wall? Boy are you lucky.

 

Doesn't take that much fluid to do that since fluid is incompressable.

 

It barely cleared the wall. I was really happy that I wouldn't have to break up the piston to get it out, and that it didn't mess up the wall.

In other news, I wasn't so lucky that it sat outside. It's going to need at least one wet sleeve, possibly two.

This thing was really nasty to tear down - it was run on parafin based oil, and there was a thick film on everything. I would have much rather worked with the black sludge that my 331 came with.

 

That will make a great paperweight. Not everyday you get to see that... unless it's on your desk.

 

I say send them to the guy who makes the clocks out of gears and car junk in the friday art show. don't remember his name

 

2 sweet new shifter knobs. good score!

 

Yep, "ran when parked" - 'just decided to never drive it again for no good reason. But, hey, it's only been 35 yrs., so if you just drop some gas in the tank, should still just fire right up. I've just been too lazy to even try it. It's a great car, hardly needs anything. I am sure you could drive it half way across the country with no problem - after you fill up the flat tires, that is.'

 

not high-jacking your post but this is what i found in my hemi

 

water does not compress....and someone was hauling ass when that happened.

 

Nasty! How much of the internals were you able to save?

 

GoodNIGHT! Did it ask for a sammich? I'd keep small children and pets away from that, it looks ornery.

 

I make trophies out of 'em and award them as "Hard Luck" trophies at our club's shows. They always put a smile on the winner's face even if he did have a crappy time getting to the show!

 

Hard to imagine that much water getting in and doing that while the motor was running - that rod has moved a lot.
How about it stood for a while, those two cylinders filled up & someone cranked it or even got it running on 6 ?
Whatever happened, hope you get it running sweet!!

Barry

 

Maybe it "ran" ruff?

 

I vote for hydrolock too.

 

"ran when parked"...boy, if i had a nickel for every time heard that.

 

love the mouse bedding

 

sooooo,you gonna heat em up,take a bfh and strait-en-em out and use em rite

 

That can happen on start up.
a buddy of mine replaced an injector on a GM 4 cylinder without depressurizing the system first...cranked her over once the switch was complete. BANG!
Fuel had filled the cylinder enough to bend the rod just like that.

Same thing had happened to the Ford engine in his V6 Shove-ette when the electric pump was left on and overpowered the needle valve in the Holley carb.
An even louder bang!

 

They would make some really unique steering column drops.