Yesterday while diving my FIL's 3500 express with a 350 V8 we experienced an apparent bottom end failure. I have never experienced this before so I may be wrong. Oil was good, recent service, always ran smooth, no engine noises etc. This van had 125k miles on it and has always been a strong runner, always maintained on a regular basis. We were using it to go on vacation and were about 125-150 miles from home. We sent the van home on a wrecker and rented another van to continue on the trip. I am sitting here on vacation and all I can think about is how this could have let go. Here is the scenarioI was driving down the interstate at about 60-65 miles per hr. I noticed a slight tick coming from the drivers side. I assumed it may be valve rattle or a doughnut gasket on the exhaust manifold may have let go. However over the next half mile to mile the tick became louder. I got off the interstate and pulled into a quick lube just in time for the motor to fail compleatly. Thankfully it failed at a business that was very accommodating Shout out to Kennessaw, Ga Casterol quick lube for letting my wife, our friends and the four children hang out while we made arrangements with the tow company and the Van rental. I will deal with the Van for my FIL when I get home. Probably going to tear it down and rebuild it. I am just curious what could cause such a catostrauphic failure on a relatively low mileage 350 Chevy? Before the motor failed we could hear a loud 'clang clang clang clang' from the lower end. Thanks Jeremiah

Sounds like bearing may have went kaput.

How is the coolant? The early Vortec 350s were known for catastrophic intake gasket failures pumping coolant into the lifter valley. I don't have to tell you what happens next. I doubt the economics will warrant a rebuild. Call your friendly GM parts department and get a price on a Goodwrench 350. You get a warranty and everything.

GMT830 wrote:How is the coolant? The early Vortec 350s were known for catastrophic intake gasket failures pumping coolant into the lifter valley. I don't have to tell you what happens next. I doubt the economics will warrant a rebuild. Call your friendly GM parts department and get a price on a Goodwrench 350. You get a warranty and everything.Thanks, I sure will

Clang, clang from the lower end....as the other guy says...sounds like lower end bearings. Happened to me years ago....but not on a Chevy. Sounds like the bearings may have been oil starved for some reason.

IMO, the ticking was a rod bearing starting to go, and then WENT. The round and round of the rods causes the tick, which gets louder and louder as the bearing continues to fail. Then the rod and bearing suddenly become a BUILT-IN MACHINE SHOP! No explanation why it would happen on such a low mileage motor that was well maintained. Some things remain a mystery. Some parts just let go for some unknown reason. I used to work on race motors many years ago when I was a younger pup and most things we could always figure out and some we never did.When they take the bottom end apart they'll likely see which bearing spun.

2002 3500 Chevy Express Engine Failure | Good Sam Community

22 Replies

colliehauler
Explorer III
May 27, 2013
I had the motor fail on my 97 Blazer at 148,000 miles. I bought a new 4.3 for it. Same thing went to pass a car and it started with a ticking sound that turned into a knock.
Carrera_man
Explorer
May 27, 2013
A few weeks ago a friend of mine blew their motor in a Dodge SUV. She was just going shopping, rod came through the block. This motor had slightly over 100K and maintained properly.
As for the Ford E 250 and 350. I had four of them, never a problem had a problem with them eating tires. That twin I beam suspension handles like******though, look at one going down a bumpy road and see it go into positive camber like an old VW. I believe this is the last year for the E series as it's being replaced with the new Transit series.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
May 26, 2013
GM crate is the way to go. They DO back them up. I changed out my 86 6.2L diesel with a 6.5 long block. They replaced it 3 times under warranty because the blocks cracked. This one is a good one with over 100K now.
Tachdriver
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Vulcaneer wrote:
I find it amazing that this is the first lower end problem I have heard of in years. And this one is highly unusual. It used to be that after 100,000 miles it was common to have these problems. Now any lower end problem is very strange. It seems that if a lower end doesn't fail in the first 10,000 miles it will never fail. So to have one fail after 120K is weird.

Please report back with autopsy report. It does sound like a rod bearing went bad, though.

I agree...the crate Vortec is the way to go. You cannot rebuild heads, for the price of a crate motor. When I bought one to go into my sons 85 SS Montecarlo, it came with a 100K warranty. Unbelievable. That car it took me a day of disconnecting junk, just to get a good look at the engine. I think we counted up 62 connections of various hoses and wires. Ah...the good ole days.

This is what happened to me. My tranny 2nd gear went out and I let it sit all the while I had coolant sitting in the oil from the intake gasket leak. Since I did no oil changes and let it sit for three years I had this rod knock that got progressively worse. I didn't know about it until I spend $4000 on a Jasper trans and intake gasket fix. Talk about an expensive older truck but it now runs great.
jerem0621
Explorer II
May 26, 2013
GMT830 wrote:
Hard to believe you find the E series nice to drive after the far superior GM frontend design. The Ford twin beam is a handling disaster and eats tires for lunch.

Not sure I agree with that. I have been driving both the twin I beam front end ad the GM car front end design for many many years. (From Rangers, to half tons, to my 1 ton dually) I have never had the tire eating issues you describe or the poor handling issues with the durable Twin-I beam and I do prefer it to the GM front end design. And yes this 2013 Ford out handles the 02 Express. Just because a design is old doesn't mean that it's bad. From my experience the twin I beam is just fine if left stock. When they are modified (lowered) without the appropriate drop I beams that's when the issues start.

However, the GM design is fine and works fine as well. YMMV

Thanks!

Jeremiah
Vulcaneer
Explorer
May 26, 2013
I find it amazing that this is the first lower end problem I have heard of in years. And this one is highly unusual. It used to be that after 100,000 miles it was common to have these problems. Now any lower end problem is very strange. It seems that if a lower end doesn't fail in the first 10,000 miles it will never fail. So to have one fail after 120K is weird.

Please report back with autopsy report. It does sound like a rod bearing went bad, though.

I agree...the crate Vortec is the way to go. You cannot rebuild heads, for the price of a crate motor. When I bought one to go into my sons 85 SS Montecarlo, it came with a 100K warranty. Unbelievable. That car it took me a day of disconnecting junk, just to get a good look at the engine. I think we counted up 62 connections of various hoses and wires. Ah...the good ole days.
Jarlaxle
Explorer II
May 26, 2013
$1443 for a rebuilt engine from Rock Auto.
GMT830
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Hard to believe you find the E series nice to drive after the far superior GM frontend design. The Ford twin beam is a handling disaster and eats tires for lunch.
jerem0621
Explorer II
May 26, 2013
I am just thankful that the motor held together long enough to get us to a safe location. Thanks for all the tips and suggestions. This rental Van have has me seriously considering a 2010-2012 E-series 12 passenger van as my next TV. It's been a real pleasure to drive, very manuverable, about 2700 ish lbs of payload, E rated tires, Tons of power. Excellent visibility (awesome actually), and I am knocking down 14.7 mpg mixed driving! I could see this working well as my DD.

This thing has a 5.4, is a 2013, and I could swear it has more power than my old 99 V10 ( I know it has more HP and slightly less tq)

The tow rating has me puzzled though. Its rated for around 7400 lbs... The F250 with the same (or less) payload, motor, tires, and axle ratio is rated for nearly 10,000 lbs... (Had to go back a few years to find a 5.4 powered F250)

Thanks
Turtle_n_Peeps
Explorer
May 26, 2013
Who knows? Could be lots of things?

These are just off the line engines and nothing special. Even multi million dollar race teams have engine failures. Even Hendrick's got ahold of a bunch of bad valve springs. And they are specialized racing engines with the sky is the limit on parts.

Some engines have parts that are just a bit weaker than other engines. These are the ones that are going go blow up first.