Blown Engine, 8.1l
Leaving Townsend GA yesterday for Covington GA and a Ham Fest I did not make it.. Just north of Reidsville there was a BANG, and a lot of smoke, and the engine died as I coasted to the shoulder. U...
Forum Discussion
RCMAN46 wrote:
I keep reading this type of comments!
"an engine with only 37k miles to grenade itself??"
The OP needs to come straight with us.
What did really happen?
A quote from the RV Forum Community.
"
Went to leave Townsend, display said "LOW OIL LEVEL" so I added some and took off, good oil pressure all happy.
About 100 miles later, Got low oil again this time both pressure AND level, next oil roughly 20 miles,,, Too late it seems, put in 2 quarts, pressure came up but quickly dropped again (But not to dangerous levels) then as I started up a hill BANG, lots of smoke, engine quit as I coasted to shoulder, Tow Truck arrived and while we hooked up we found a rather large hole in the oil pan..... Do not know if it tossed a lower engine part, or if there is a matching hole in a piston (Somethign 8.1s do far too often) Stuck in METTER. GA. Not a happy camper.
And the McDonald's wi-fi is broke so this is posted on a GMRS (Read that dial up speed) link.. OUCH!!"
That is exactly why I think some road debris punctured the oil pan and caused an oil leak. If the engine did not have a history of burning oil, why the sudden low oil level?
In any case, unless the oil leak was noticed and repaired, even adding oil before the next trip only got him another 100 miles or so before the oil level had dropped to the danger point. I am guessing that at some point before the first stop, the oil pan was punctured and this caused a small leak that eventually led to the engine failure.
Having had a piston holed in a Ford V-8 I know that this should not cause a hole in the oil pan. Actually the engine keeps running, altho very noisy and will not run for too long. A hole in the oil pan is a rod breaking(the bang) after an engine seizure during cruise. That is a sign of oil starvation, caused by a loss/leak of oil. Hot oil is then spewed out on to the exhaust causing copious amounts of smoke.
