Blown Engine, 8.1l

rgatijnet1 wrote:
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.

I would agree it's an odd chain of events. A leak that big would be obvious. If it was burning that much it would be even more obvious. It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback, but I'd have called a tow truck when I lost oil pressure. The consequences of low/no oil pressure are quick and catastrophic.

Unfortunately it sounds like he did have a real drop in pressure whether from a leak or some sort of internal failure. I'd bet the BANG was the innards coming apart and the hole in the pan is from a connecting rod. Dry bearings and cylinder walls get really hot really fast. Something that was moving really fast seized and stopped abruptly leading to a grenade effect. In the case of my 454 it appears as if the destruction was immediate and thorough. The broken piston hit the head hard enough to break the seal and mix water and oil. Bits of piston, rings, bearings, etc. were scattered everywhere. It's an amazing amount of violence.