It was like any other Saturday morning when I got up out of bed. The birds were chirping, it was a cool 74 degrees outside and everything seemed normal. It was 6:50am and I had to meet Rob in Manteca by 7:30am so I loaded up my 2 jugs, started up the Evo and had a cigarette while the car warmed up.

Finished with my cigarette, I hopped in the car and headed for the local E85 station. On the way there I hear a slight rattle in my engine. Any smart person would have turned around and parked the car, but it was a beautiful day and I was on my way to Hella Flush VI San Mateo so I decided to take a chance. Yes the car has cams and is pushing 399 whp, but the engine only has 18k miles on it so what the hell, it couldn't be that that bad right?

Well I finally meet up with Rob and the rest of the caravan in Manteca. We hop back on the freeway and I noticed the rattle getting a bit louder. Pulling off in Tracy to collect the rest of our posse, I get out to have a smoke and evaluate the noise. I tell Rob "this doesn't sound good and I don't have a good feeling about making this drive" He says "well if it gets any louder just call me and we'll pull over and drop the car off".

Well I wasn't about to leave my Evo just sitting in some random parking lot so I figured ****, it made it this far, I should definitely make it to San Mateo...

Cruising the whole way, we finally make it to the toll booth for the San Mateo bridge. I paid the $5 toll and proceeded on to cross the 7 mile bridge ahead of me. Three quarters of the way through, I start the climb toward the crest of the bridge before it's downward slope toward the bottom when... Boom! A cloud of white smoke billows over my front windshield along with a click clank sound from under the car like I had dropped a bag of tools or something!

"****!" I say while my car just rolls to a stop. I quickly call Rob to let him know what happened when halfway through my voicemail I realize I'm stopped in the ****ing slow lane with nowhere to pull over! In a panic, I hang up and call 911, tell them my situation and plea for them to hurry up and send someone. At this point I'm certain that I'm about to meet the reaper as cars are whizzing past me at 70+ mph!

"Oh ****, here comes a semi! Please don't hit me, please don't hit me, please!" is what the 911 operator kept hearing me scream!

Pumping the brake with my hazards on and me pointing out the window for cars to go around did not seem to do much help as cars were screeching to a halt or swerving at the last minute to avoid a sure fatal collision. All I kept thinking with every car I seen in my rearview was "this is it, how do I take this hit? I hope I don't go flying off the bridge!"

Finally 10 minutes later a patrol car comes to my rescue and says he has to push me over the crest and down the bridge. For a split second I thought, "but my jdm rear bumper might get messed up" reality snaps me back, WTF was I thinking! I need to get off this bridge!

Pushed over the crest and coasting down the bridge, I finally make it to a safe spot at the bottom where I collect my marbles and take a deep breath of relief!

"I'm alive" I say to myself and "I shouldn't be"...

 

#1, Yesterday was Sunday
#2, PLEASE USE PARAGRAPHS
#3, ......

 

cool story, bro.

 

Mother of god.

 

holy crap. glad you're ok. what's the verdict?

-Jalal

 

tl;dr

 

Cliffs notes:

Car sounds bad, driver keeps pushing it after he realizes there is an issue and weird noises. Breaks down on bridge and almost gets killed.

 

I am still trying to figure out why anyone would continue to drive when they are hearing engine noises. Glad you are okay, but this could have been prevented had you gone with your gut feeling.

 

 

Yeah I know, but the car was tuned just barely a month ago and running fine with only 18k on the engine. I might have driven it five times at most since then. It is always garaged and babied when driven only on the weekends. I was already on the road when I heard the noise, but didn't expect it to be fatal. I was at 3k rpm when the motor popped. WTF??

 

 

should have thrown it in first and walked it up the hill on the starter then coasted down the back side.
glad you made it out ok. that kind of **** is not fun.

 

could be a few things. low batch of e-85 which we've seen before in the bay area. or perhaps some 91 still left in the tank killing octane rating or even since you haven't driven it much maybe the fuel separated or just picked up moisture from the air. i didn't think e85 does well with being stored for long periods of time.
also popping at 3k...
it wasn't the rpm it was the extra load from the hill

 

Hmm, well my two jugs were empty until I filled them up at the station that morning along with my car which was on an 1/8th of a tank. So the fuel was fresh to my knowledge, although I know they are supposed to install new pumps for E85. This station was converted so maybe they failed to install a new one and there was still 91 in the pump. However, I tested the fuel and it was good with only a thin line of petroleum at the top so I'm thinking it couldn't have been the fuel. I could be wrong. This station is located in Modesto.
I just can't figure out how it happened since I know people running more whp than me on a stock block running 10's with no problems. I've never drag raced the car nor beat it up on the street or track for that matter. The fuel was fresh, there were no driver errors involved, and the motor only has 18k miles on it boosted at 29psi.

 

So here's the damage... just what I could pull out from under the car. Haven't seen the inside of the block yet...