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Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Organized Drag Racing and AutocrossDrag racing and autocross discussions and questions. Techniques, tips, suggestions, and "what will I run?" questions.
Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
I've decided this would be a good sticky to have just to show what happens when you push the limits of your parts to make more power. We've all broken something along the way in our quest for speed.
Post your trophy images. It doesn't matter if it's engine, driveline, suspension etc parts that you've broken.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
A valve spring from a couple of years ago. Valve never dropped which would have caused a lot more damage.
First trophy I decided to keep. This was from a 0.070" over 454 (469). The head of the valve is stuck in the top of the piston and it punched a hole through the combustion chamber of a 781 head.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Well, this is the only pic that I have someplace that I can link to, but I have 8 pinion gears (and assorted matching parts) that look like the one one on the right (I took this pic to give a sense of scale for that chuck in the middle, and keep a pinion on my desk at work, one at home, one on each work bench...):
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
that pic of the 700r4 above just solidified my choice of getting a trans blanket for my twin turbo iroc
this is what happens when to a stock v6 flexplate when u have 400+ ftlbs of tq
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
445ci - was our blower short block from the '68(RIP), but with a single 4 manifold and 1320cfm alky dominator for some shake-downs with the '86 when I first finished it. Crank was apparently sprung in the middle from the '68 crash(checked ok on both ends) and shook a rod-cap loose on a the 3rd hit. - The block was fully filled, and it still took most of the front corner out when it let go.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Two years ago...I`m pretty sure it dropped the cylinder in the burnout box and YES i did not notice lol!! Staged it and at the top of first on a 325 shot thru the fogger it let the intake valve and exhaust valve into the cylinder 1 piston, 1 rod, 1 head, 1 crank, 1 block and no racing the rest of the year. the intake valve was up the runner, no chamber what so ever in the head was left, rod was bent, crank was bent and block pushed out the wall. the valve seats scattered thought the chambers runied all of the other pistons as well.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
C'mon. How are we not suppose to comment on all this stuff. You guys really destroy some stuff.
I'll get some pics of some wiped out torque converter and trans parts. I have an input made of Nasa steel on my desk that was twisted in half by a Pro Mod car. I'll add them to this post
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Oh I'd love to make comments myself on some of this stuff but as I originally stated, I don't want the thread filled up with simple stuff like "Wow that looks bad"
As mentioned, I will tolerate responses for more details.
I think Shagwell's got me beat on the most damage at one time although my 383 was close.
I got some crappy pictures somewhere of my old 383 when I destroyed it. It was pre digital camera days so I need to track them down and scan them. 2 cylinders had no (cast) pistons in them. The cast camshaft was broken in multiple places and the back piece tried to go out the back of the block which took out the distributor and flexplate. There were 5 visibly bent valves in the 2 heads. I can't remember how many pushrods were bent. One Gold rocker broke a trunnion. I pulled the heads and intake off and threw the rest into the scrap metal bin at work.
The worst part about all of our damage, we don't know when to give up and quit! I probably could have paid off my mortgage by now.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
....that wasn't our "most damage at one time", just my most recent notable damage.
Someday I'll have a little spare time at home to upload some older pics. - Stuff like our '68 camaro after t-punching the retaining wall straight on @ 135ish mph, breaking the concrete into pieces where it hit, then sliding through the traps on it's roof on fire, tripping the beams with a 6.07@107(still in it's lane).
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Most recent damage that I've been able to take a picture of. 582 BBC con rod that I pulled out of the oil containment pan and the hole it punched through the oil pan.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
My second rebuilt E4OD transmission from my 1991 Bronco. I had to toss it for scrap, there was not a single usable part left, even shredded the casing.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Although it doesn't look like much, my Dart Big M block is cracked enough that it's scrap metal. This is the main that I spun a bearing on. Here's what the machine shop found before they started doing repairs. You can't see anything on the backside of the webbing but magnafluxing shows how deep the crack is. The block already has 2 sleeves and would probably need 2 more to be fixed plus an expensive line bore. It was cheaper to just buy a new block.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Here is a forged LS1 with a STS turbo on a 2000 T/A I did for a customer that didn't want me 2 upgrade his fuel rails becuse it was expensive and told me he wouldn't run it hard until he upgraded it, riiiight.. It did have a alky inj setup on it but he had turned it off again.. 2 Hrs after delivery he was calling me telling me it was missing. He did this not once but twice in less than 1 1/2 years.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Okay, I think I've got a couple.
Bearing hub broken off stock 10" carrier:
Trak Pak adjustment link (it's important to have a TA mount that doesn't have side-to-side motion):
This caused a bit of a miss:
#8 rod bearing - never did figure out what happened. The other 12 crank bearings looked fine. Had a few thousand passes and don't know how many road miles on it when it failed.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
My weekend went crappy, the very first pass....
Three NA passes on a new set of GRP 5300's. Crank has ZERO marks other than the impact spot where it hit coming around after the rod let go & all other bearings are clean as well so this was not an oiling issue, the rod simply failed. - Appears that it broke above the one bolt(left side of rod in pic) piece & cap then folded out on remaing bolt as it came around, which then contacted the block & broke the bolt out of the other side, then the rod fractured in the center either during that process or as the crank came around again.
NOT very happy right now. Run many sets of aluminum rods through the years, but this was our first(and last) set of GRP's.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Turns out it was a good thing we wounded the motor at the ODRC race a few weekends back -
None-the-less the spline twist being a little over 1/2 a spline, but you can see the fracture lines basically at every other spline.
Handful of bottom 1.2x 60fts on a single small stage. The next pass I was lining up for would have had a much large hit of the t-brake plus an even bigger kit coming on at .4, would have been a definite "left turn Clyde!".
33-spline Strange race axles, rated ok with the car being relatively light, but apparently not so much. Ordering a new set of 35's & the corresponding spool now, would step up to rifle-drilled 40's but since we are trying to sell this car the substancial cost increase wouldn't make much sense, and the 35's will be more than adequate.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Last weekend after a fresh rebuild and 9 dyno pulls the oil filter mounting bracket cracked in half at home while starting the car to load it on the trailer for a track outing !
fortunately no damage except for the mess on the floor and the fact we had to cancel the outing..
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
its been a while since anyone added anything to this thread so here ya go this is out of my new turbo motor , had no idea it was going bad only reason i cought it is cause i had decided to make some changes to it
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
1.82 or 1.76 first gear? The stock 1.82 are weak. My 1.76 gears seem to be still surviving. For best strength, many racers go to 1.80 straight cut gears.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
They were 1.76.
I bought the transmission a few years ago and had it rebuilt but did not replace the gears. I ran 1.76 behind a lot bigger motor than what I have now and never had a problem. There is no telling what kind of abuse it went through before it was mine.
I did replace them with the 180 straight cut gears so should be good to go.
Last edited by Wolfster14; 05-09-2017 at 04:26 PM.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Stock short block from an LB9, 19* timing @ 20-psi of boost pressure. Was running 93 octane most of the day at the track without alky, seemed okay at 12/15-psi, but I pushed too far at 20-psi. Engine still got me home, but was making a chirping noise. Pulled the plugs, the number one electrode was not melted, but pushed to the side. Pulled the head and the cylinder did not detonate, the rod gave up the ghost. Top of piston chipped because of its' angle hitting into the plug. Engine was calculated at around 275 horsepower naturally aspirated, so 20-psi (140% increase) would have put me at 660 horsepower. Surprised it wasn't more severe. Replacement LB9 capped at 10-psi, lesson learned...
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Not as impressive as some of yours, but alittle different league as well.
Car didn't bite coming off turn 2 and rear caught the wall. I would have figured it would have bent the panhard but it didn't. Caliper held the wheel so I atleast loaded the car under its own power.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Broke a connecting rod around 6000 rpms at the drag strip back in November. Catastrophic failure. Luckily it was right before the 1st to 2nd shift and not on the top end of the track.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Nothing wrong with the transmission as long as the pump seal isn't damaged. Cut the rest of the bellhousing off with a reciprocating saw and install a JW Performance bellhousing onto it. The JW bellhousings bolt up to the pump bolts. It's an easy way to do transmission swaps. Put a powerglide onto a Ford, Dodge etc.
Re: Sacrifices to the gods of speed, power and acceleration
Center section cracked where the tube was welded in to the center section, internals are fine.
After cleaning it up it was obvious the person who stick welded it, back in the day, did not know what they were doing.
06-18-2011, 03:18 PM
1 piston, 1 rod, 1 head, 1 crank, 1 block and no racing the rest of the year. the intake valve was up the runner, no chamber what so ever in the head was left, rod was bent, crank was bent and block pushed out the wall. the valve seats scattered thought the chambers runied all of the other pistons as well. 
Oh I'd love to make comments myself on some of this stuff but as I originally stated, I don't want the thread filled up with simple stuff like "Wow that looks bad"
I probably could have paid off my mortgage by now. 
