Threw a Rod. How can this happen in 2023

[L31MaxExpress]

In line with what I am talking about. Never used the company, but a 383 short block or even 350 short block does not have to be expensive to build for a stock type application.

Chevy 383HP Stroker Engine Premium Short Block

Our main focus is to provide powerful and reliable rebuilt Chevy 383HP Stroker Engine Premium Short Block for our consumers.

raptorengines.com

 

[GoToGuy]

Ok, seriously, running at maximum throttle ( pedal glued to the floor) for an extended duration, with heavy or max gross load is not what the engineers had in thier thought process. Even C/K 3500 with duals and upward models, are not designed, or expected to be at maximum load ,full throttle long extended duration. To coin a phrase " your burning the candle at both ends" .
Your idea that the truck should informed you of catastrophic failure? The computer does not monitor driving habits or technique, be good or mechanical suicidal. It's function is normal engine functions and emissions reduction. At loss of oil pressure the engine will stop, if under heavy load ,weight or uphill passing gear hard acceleration friction will most likely win, before loss of fuel pressure will shutdown the engine.
It did give you warning. You chose to ignore it.
Did the engine actually break a connecting rod and break through the block, or oil pan?
If not you have catastrophic engine damage. Not the " through a rod".
You know it has internal damage, stop making it worse by starting it.

 

[Supercharged111]

Ok, seriously, running at maximum throttle ( pedal glued to the floor) for an extended duration, with heavy or max gross load is not what the engineers had in thier thought process. Even C/K 3500 with duals and upward models, are not designed, or expected to be at maximum load ,full throttle long extended duration. To coin a phrase " your burning the candle at both ends" .

We'll agree to disagree here. What does prolonged WOT operation really hurt? How do you know if wasn't accounted for? A 60 second PE delay and piston protection mode readily come to mind. Sounds like OP wasn't flat footed for very long here, and anyone who lives out west can attest to how long the climbs can be. I would certainly hope the engineers accounted for that. In my experience they have. I have 2 supercharged trucks with stock cooling systems that pull heavy, unaerodynamic loads with the AC blasting that don't overheat in my stable. I got stuck on a 90 mile stretch of KS road once, spent a good chunk of that with my foot to the floor. Temp gauge never went past 210. I have a 93 Camaro that I road race. Engine is bone stock and runs WOT 20-30 minutes at a time. The short block was assembled back in 2016 with a used stock rotating assembly that I didn't even bother to have balanced. The Vortec 350 uses the same powdered metal rods and I believe the LT1 used the same nodular iron crank? And the 454 Vortec motor survived a trip to 1000hp on Engine Masters. Suffice it to say that these motors are very tough and to imply that prolonged WOT operation in and of itself is asking for trouble is just not accurate. It can be if you overheat the motor or run it out of oil, but a healthy motor should be able to hold up just fine to this sort of use that the OP put his truck through. I've worked mine much harder on more occasions than I can remember.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

We'll agree to disagree here. What does prolonged WOT operation really hurt? How do you know if wasn't accounted for? A 60 second PE delay and piston protection mode readily come to mind. Sounds like OP wasn't flat footed for very long here, and anyone who lives out west can attest to how long the climbs can be. I would certainly hope the engineers accounted for that. In my experience they have. I have 2 supercharged trucks with stock cooling systems that pull heavy, unaerodynamic loads with the AC blasting that don't overheat in my stable. I got stuck on a 90 mile stretch of KS road once, spent a good chunk of that with my foot to the floor. Temp gauge never went past 210. I have a 93 Camaro that I road race. Engine is bone stock and runs WOT 20-30 minutes at a time. The short block was assembled back in 2016 with a used stock rotating assembly that I didn't even bother to have balanced. The Vortec 350 uses the same powdered metal rods and I believe the LT1 used the same nodular iron crank? And the 454 Vortec motor survived a trip to 1000hp on Engine Masters. Suffice it to say that these motors are very tough and to imply that prolonged WOT operation in and of itself is asking for trouble is just not accurate. It can be if you overheat the motor or run it out of oil, but a healthy motor should be able to hold up just fine to this sort of use that the OP put his truck through. I've worked mine much harder on more occasions than I can remember.

I agree, with the OEM calibration it is designed to not only be able to have the accelerator flat footed, but to remain flat footed as long as the need for power exists. Further enforcing that is the 10s of thousands of Police Tahoes and Caprices that idled all day, the pedal hit the floor, they chased the offender until they caught up, then it idled while they wrote the ticket or arrested the offender only to do it over and over again. I also had what was basically a L98 Camaro 350 2-bolt main with a Q-Jet on top in a boat that would run for hours at 4,600-5,000 rpm with the throttle pinned open. Pat just made over 700 hp on a stock L31 bottom end with a turbo on it. Mine lived on a 125 shot of nitrous for 3 years. Probably 1 bottle a weekend.

Now run the thing low on oil, suck air for even a short period of time.

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[BeXtreme]

Also, I've driven that road.. in my squarebody... pulling a 6k lb travel trailer. I was floored at 55mph with a Gen I 355/TH400/NP205 and 35" tires with 4.10 gears. It's not that severe or long really. His motor gave up because there was something wrong, most likely a lack of lubrication. High rpm, plus a grade, for extended period of time could have contributed to the pickup coming uncovered after all the oil got pumped into the top end, if he was already low on oil. A normal motor with a full pan would not starve of oil from the 5500RPM that a stock Vortec would have been maxing out at.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Also, I've driven that road.. in my squarebody... pulling a 6k lb travel trailer. I was floored at 55mph with a Gen I 355/TH400/NP205 and 35" tires with 4.10 gears. It's not that severe or long really. His motor gave up because there was something wrong, most likely a lack of lubrication. High rpm, plus a grade, for extended period of time could have contributed to the pickup coming uncovered after all the oil got pumped into the top end, if he was already low on oil. A normal motor with a full pan would not starve of oil from the 5500RPM that a stock Vortec would have been maxing out at.

With a 4L80E trans it should not have gone over ~5,100 as that is where they are programmed to upshift at WOT.

I know first hand the damage I did to my L31 when the pickup tube fell off and I thought it had a bad oil pressure reading. I rolled rod bearings into it and kept it going another 4 years, 3 of those on nitrous. When I had the 383 almost built, I upped the jetting from 125 hp to 200 hp and it lived another ~10 bottles. Ultimate failure was butted rings, a cracked piston and blowby.

 

[Schurkey]

IF (big IF) he was foot-to-the-floor LONG ENOUGH, I can see the spark plugs getting overheated, leading to detonation/preignition, and then Sudden Terminal Disassembly. NO engine will survive detonation at heavy throttle, or preignition, for long.

(GM used to call light-throttle detonation "The Sound of Economy"--it meant that the ignition timing was maxed-out for a given load and throttle position. Light-throttle detonation is no big deal. Preignition, and medium- or heavy-throttle detonation is DEATH to an engine.)

Boats and longer-term dyno tests sometimes install a colder heat range spark plug before extended (minutes at a time) heavy-throttle use. Under a minute, no problem. Two minutes, maybe no problem. More than two minutes of WFO...be careful with the heat-range.

Flexplates are a known issue with the small-block one-piece seal cranks. But a broken flexplate--while SOUNDING like a rod knock--doesn't drop the oil pressure. OTOH, I can surely understand that a known-weak-design flexplate might crack when running at WFO up a hill.

At high RPM, an oil filter could have the filter media wad-up and block oil flow.

So: First thing I'd do is pull the filter, cut it open, see what the guts look like, and determine if there's metal particles inside.

Next, I'd rip out all eight spark plugs to see if the electrodes are melted. This would be separate from electrodes smashed by contact with a piston, or smashed by debris caught between piston and plug. I'm looking for HEAT damage. But he said he was WFO up a "short" hill, so long term WFO and the associated plug overheating seems unlikely.

Lastly--and very inconveniently--I'd try to inspect the flexplate. Not easy or fun, and I'd do it more out of curiosity than any real hope that it's the problem--due to the lack of oil pressure.

The rebuilder insists that the engine core shipped back to them be "assembled"; but they surely can't cry about oil filters and spark plugs--they'll expect you to throroughly drain the oil and coolant before the carrier picks-up the core.

 

[Schurkey]

Oh, yeah. One more thing.

I thought our trucks have all sorts of electronic safety equipment and computers that would prevent the engine from overrevving under heavy load. That worthless (seems now to me) equipment caused my transmission to go into safe mode numerous times last year until I replaced all four O2 and the MAF sensor. But it didn’t help me when I really needed it.

Kept you from screwing-up the engine and catalytic converters, didn't it?

I really don't need snarky comments implying that I altered, or wished to alter, my emission system (no way I'd ever do that)

I worded my response poorly, and you misunderstood as a result.

What I meant was the computer's "safe mode" and trouble-codes forced you to fix two problems (faulty O2 sensors, and faulty MAF sensor.) Either of which could have led to improper air-fuel-ratio control. That leads to potentially making the knock-sensor angry, retarding timing and driving engine coolant temperature, and exhaust temperature up. Retarded timing and/or air/fuel mixture problem in turn could have murdered the catalysts, especially if the mixture went "rich".

By forcing you to fix the problems, the computer "programming" maybe saved your catalytic converters, and in the process saved you hundreds of dollars.

 

[Hipster]

Oil smoke billowing out of the engine compartment night disqualify it as a rebuildable core. Gives me the impression the block has been windowed.

 

[L31MaxExpress]

Oil smoke billowing out of the engine compartment night disqualify it as a rebuildable core. Gives me the impression the block has been windowed.

It could very well be, then again it could have popped a gasket or oil cooler linee, etc, then lost oil, then lost pressure. All a mystery until the post mortem inspection tear down.