Yeah tell that to the old Bat that lives down at the end of my street. What do you use nowdays I could use some help here.
I had a rod let go in a 302 engine of mine years back. Was a short block I bought/rebuilt. It ran for about 10 minutes then a rod let go. Smashed the cam and took a chunk out of the cylinder wall etc. Scrap! Found a rod nut lying in the pan mixed in with the shrapnel. Knew right away that someone missed tightening it. IT was a no brainer. I should have double checked everything before hand. Lesson learned.
lots of finger pointing going on here. Or should I say...lots of SPECULATION. Many times when an engine fails, the damage is too extensive to pinpoint the actual souce of the failure. However, when a nut is laying in the pan, it's safe to ASSume that something was amiss-whether it was the machinest's fault, the manufacturer's fault, the assembler's fault or.....the user's fault. One thing is for sure. If the engine is/was specifically used for drag racing, or was ever used on a track, you can bet your bottom dollar that the builder/assembler/machinest won't stand behind it. I can understand why but at the same time it sucks a big sack of butt. New car warranties are the same way. If you blow your brand new GT500's engine while drag racing it, and the dealer finds out, chances are good that they aren't going to warranty it because it was used for racing purposes. I think even the warranty statements even have a provision for racing. Nut in the pan isn't necessarily the fastener's manufacturer's fault. It's not necessarily the machinest's fault and it's not necessarily the fault of the user. Could be the combination of ALL of them. Keep in mind it's a 5/16" bolt which was barely adequate for a stock 289 much less anything that spins RPM-especially low/no load RPM (burnouts, free revving, etc). I had a 2.3 Ford out of my '93 Mustang that had the exact same problem. Rod out the side actually laying on the crossmember. Bought it like that. Replaced engine with junkyard engine and decided to pull pan before I scrapped it. Guess what. Nut laying in the pan. Stock rods. That engine had never had it's insides seen by anyone but Ford Motor Company prior to my taking the pan off. One nut was laying in the bottom of the pan and the other bolt was broken off/bent. Safe to assume that this thing was probably over-revved at one point which stretches the bolts a little...and when the bolts stretch beyond their yield strength, they STAY stretched, and then the nut doesn't have anything to really hold it on unless it's a lock nut (uncommon on rods). Just because it has a 6200 RPM limit doesn't mean it's impossible to overrev it, either. It'll only limit acceleration RPM under load. If for some reason it was downshifted while going down a hill, it's very easy to let the revs get up there. That's just speaking for a 2.3....no idea if your V8 was ever a victim to this or not. Also I'd ask the machinest/assembler if a torque wrench was used. If it was...find another shop. A GOOD assembler would use a bolt stretch gauge rather than a torque wrench. If a stretch gauge was used, get a build sheet proving the amount of stretch. If it's within ARP's reccomendation, then I'd question the bolt itself. A good machinest would provide a build sheet when the engine was built. If they don't, then they can't prove that it was assembled properly and they can deny fault altogether. And....finally...if in fact this engine was the victim of drag racing, welcome to "racing". Things break. I really hate it when it happens, whether it's mine, yours, or anyone elses (that money is hard earned) but unfortunately it happens to all of us at one point or another. Last but not least, the only true way to get what you want is to build it yourself. Then when it breaks you can't blame anyone but yourself...AND most importantly, you learn what works and what doesn't
I agree with a lot of what MavMan has said, but with that said I would not have a race motor built/assembled by anyone who would not stand behind their work as long as you follow their directions for starting and breaking-in the motor, or for that mater a transmission/torque converter. I am currently having Gromm Racing in San Jose build and assemble my old motor because I want to make sure all of the used pieces go back together with a lot of TLC. This includes the ARP Pro rod bolts and checking for stretch, big ends on the Eagle rods resized, Probe pistons coated, cylinder bores honed for the Total Seal Rings, and bottom end fitted together better than it was by CHP. In fact I visited him and we talked about his concern for leaving the main girdle in because it was giving conflicting data regarding the line bore, and although I was once sold on their design I no longer believe they do much good......so we are leaving it out and I feel very comfortable as this is a 69/72 block which is about 10lbs heavier than the 74 and up block...............all of this weight is in a stronger web area. With that said, this will only be my third motor in over 30 years of racing that I have allowed some else to assemble.................why, mainly because I trust so few engine builders..............an as MavMan said, if you put it together and something happens you have no one else to blame. The other thing I have to say is that if a motor is put together right the first time................attention to "blue printing" is followed and you buy the best parts your pocketbook can afford................And You Maintain the Motor.....................I see no reason for it to grenade, in fact I have been drag racing for over 30 years and have yet to have a motor blow...................or grenade. Unless you punishing the motor to its limits on every run a well built motor should last for 3/5 years without a tear down. The 408 that was built by CHP in my Maverick did a 9.801 last year and the motor was put together in 1999.................when I tore the motor down myself I found a lot of things that were wrong with it, and probably dodged the blowup...............but I didn't feel comfortable knowing how long the motor was in the car and how well it was put together......................now I know.........................and although the motor could go into the 7000/7500rpm range I will be pushing it to 6500. The reason I loosened up the converter and changed the headers to produce a little more torque down lower................... IMHO
