Update!

Today I placed my order for my Buschur Stage 3 2.3L shortblock. Time to get things cleaned up and ready for the new motor!

 

cyl #1 sees the most abuse, plus if a rod just snaps clean and doesn't bend its junk. even stock rod material bends before it breaks. i had 3-4 stock blocks bend rods at 630whp~ and not break or harm the block and they rebuilt using the same block. the look of the rod means nothing. its the material being used to form the rod is what counts the most.

Buschur uses a manley turbo tuff and a je piston typically so you should be good to go. his engine won't ever just snap a rod because he knows better than to use junk. the newest design pistons are very nice and asymmetrical also.

 

I'm pumped, can't wait to get the motor in. I'm sending the head off to the machine shop to get checked out, hot tanked and decked if it needs it. In the meantime, I have a lot of cleaning to do in the bay.

Oh and something else, upon tearing the car apart, I've noticed my tcase has a smaller chip in it from the rod flying back, and my transmission has a 1.5" crack where the starter bolts to. All from a rod letting go at 3k rpms?!?!

 

damn bad luck man! Shep has crap loads of bellhousings if the housings bad definitely call them.

 

I think on the trans, Ill have a good buddy of mine just v notch the crack and weld it on both sides. Its just over an inch and is where the starter is mounted. On my 1g, I had a chunk come out of the bellhousing during shipping. Had him weld the piece back in, it held up fine and still holds up in my buddies 1G.

For the tcase, im afraid I am gonna have to get a new housing for it at least. I kinda want to just look for a built non acd tcase, so I can eliminate acd and abs.

 

Here is some eye candy for those wondering lol. Here are the cheap no name rods that were in the motor.


Also a few shots of the poor block.

Backside of the block

Front:

 

That rod breaking is not the rod's fault. Those appear to be Crower billet rod's and they aren't cheap nor junk. Take some measurements and I will see if they are the same as mine.

 

Well they aren't Crower. I just looked at mine and the rod is definitely thicker. I still don't believe the rod is at fault.

 

I hope whatever caused it isnt something that I am just gonna throw right back on the new block and break another rod lol

I hate to just instantly blame the rod, but the bearings look great, the rod bolts were still torqued and the crank was fine.

 

sure wasn't the tune that much i can assure you. i shouldn't even have to mention that really.

 

ill stand by what i said. rods that break apart like that with no bending at all are JUNK. i dont care what anyone says its common sense.

good steel doesn't break before it bends first. the rod literally broke in 3 pieces right? theres no way thats a quality rod. if it is it is no longer in production thats for sure.

 

I think the manley turbo tuff series rods are like these http://rrconnectingrods.com/steel-co...ting-rods.html

I would imagine the crower are similar also. (never seen crower in person)

I guess EQ4340 steel is what all the good rods are made out of? i dont know. i know manley listed that steel on their site though.

http://www.manleyperformance.com/sc/...g63_rods.shtml

 

The rod brok at the top near the wrist pin, then at the bottom also. The center was peeled apart like a banana haha. All I found of the rod was two sie of the edge of the rod. I never found the middle of the center of the rod, just the two edges.

It just makes me real nervous I am gonna throw this gem in from Buschur and something happens again lol.


Something else that has been mentioned, which I am thinking about. Will the thrust bearing just fall out of the block, if the main girdle is removed? Cause it was removed when I was wiggling the trans off the block and one half of the thrust bearing just fell out. I thought those were sort of "pressed" in? Idk

 

And Tom, ive never even considered it being the tune at fault, the damn car wasnt even at enough load that could make this happen imo.

From what I have seen, there isnt even an damage to the head. I am having it checked out of course, but I dont see anything wrong with it. My spark plug from cylinder 4 even looks fine lol.

 

the thrust washers lay in between the crank on each end. if the block didn't break at that area of the crank it wouldn't just fall out once the main girdle is torqued down. it would keep them from coming out & spinning. unless your main girdle was partially pulled apart maybe on impact.

are you sure the main girdle wasnt damaged or pulled out at all?

If something like that happened though, you would have ate up your crank angle sensor that reads the trigger plate. if everything is fine on that end then that was damaged on the impact and wasn't the cause of the rod failing.

The thrust washers keep the endplay within spec on the crank, so if one of them is failing, you would have crank walk which is when the crank moves side to side (driver side to passenger / vice versa) and from to much endplay it will move the trigger plate into the crank angle sensor and grind the plastic crank angle sensor apart eventually killing it & shutting the vehicle off.