NFRTurboTerror

My buddy has an 02 S2k with an F22C. He had a hole in his radiator and let his car overheat. Well once we fixed the radiator it started pouring white smoke out of the tail pipe. He drove it like that for about a week till we could get a head gasket. I changed the head gasket and when we fired the engine up it ran for about 30 sec and the locked up. The #3 rod snapped. I have built/rebuilt 4 F20/22C's Never had a single problem. I triple checked everything and it was all right. There was a small amount of water in that cyl. Obviously he is looking for another engine but I am still on WTF could have caused it.

Olegator

well, something caused it, rods usually don't snap on their own..
....lack of lubrication+coolant=seizing?
damage was probably done already before you got to replacing the gasket anyways...

TubeDriver

zeroptzero

did you change the oil prior to starting it up, most likely water in the engine somewhere.

NFRTurboTerror

Im in the navy and while i was home in FL on leave he called me and asked if he could drive it with a hole in the radiator. I said yes but only for short distances and make sure you keep water in it. Well he took that as make sure to keep water in the car to fill it up when it over heats. Then waited until it actually over heated to put water in it and did this for a two weeks. Then when i got back he drove over and we patched his radiator filled it up and he drove off. Then i got a call a week later saying that his car was smoking really bad. I asked how long he said since right after we put the radiator back in. I was like "it took you a week to tell me somthing was up"? It wasnt smoking when he brought it over and it wasnt smoking when it left. He said he noticed it smoking once it got completely warm.

NFRTurboTerror

When we pulled the head off we had it hot tanked, leak checked and strait edged. I pulled the oil pan and cleaned it all out and flushed the block the best i could. There was no water in the cyl when i tore it down the first time, and only a very small amount when i tore it down the second time. Im wondering if the machine shop he took his head to actually did the work they were suposed to.

RedY2KS2k

With a blown head gasket and a hole in the radiator, it wouldn't smoke because the cooling system never built pressure, thus never forced coolant into the cylinders. You patched the hole in the radiator and the cooling system started to pressurize as it got hot. But it wasn't hot when he left.

What could the machine shop have done to the head to cause a rod to break?

XScarAudio

Isn't it possible that the damage was already done to the rod BEFORE the repair (stress crack, etc) and it finally broke once good compression was pushed again?

NFRTurboTerror

Thats exactly what i was thinking at the time when we changed it. That maybe it just hadnt built up enough pressure to start blowing through the headgasket. Thats also why I was sure that changing that would fix the problem as long as the head was not cracked or warped. So now Im thinking that maybe the machine shop just hot tanked it and did not actually do a leak check or check for warpage.

NFRTurboTerror

I have never seen a rod snap from over heating. I have seen pistons melt and bearings spin (from lack of lubrication). But I dont think that i have ever seen a rod break just from overheating or lack of lubrication because of water in the oil. But just about anything is possible.