What happened to my engine???

Old Henry

Old Henry

Well-known member
Just opened up the oil pan to drain the oil out and this stuff came out.

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Here's the story:

On April 4th I picked up Betsy at her assisted living center in Old Henry and took her to her 94th birthday party that was just around the corner from my place then went home. When I pulled into the garage I heard this clicking sound under the hood. Opened it up and it was coming from the back bottom of the engine on the right side. Wondered what it was. Drove to my office and on the way home the clicking turned into a knocking. Then, about a block from home coming up the hill something came apart inside the engine with a real bad sound. After the initial bad sound the sound was mostly like a bicycle chain loose inside rubbing on something. The engine was still running but I immediately pulled over, shut off the engine, and called my wife to come tow me home. (Yeah. She loves that.) Tonight I opened up the drain plug to drain the oil out to see if I could see anything up in there and out came all of these pieces that look to me like parts of a piston blown apart.

Saturday I'm pulling the engine to take off the oil pan to see more but just wonder what you all think is the damage and, more importantly, what caused it. The engine was totaly rebuilt my a master 3½ years and 30,000 miles ago.

What do you think???:confused:
 
That sure does look like piston pieces. Lets hope the rod/wrist pin didn't do too much damage to the cylinder wall.
 
Henry, you need to get onto Walt dupont,he will fix that mess in a flash.
I would say a piston has cracked and come apart.
Lawrie
 
thats a broken piston .you say eng was rebuilt by master mech . i know you live & drive in an area of high altude. a lean runing eng can cause piston falure. you will know when you disamble the eng.
 
You'll probably have to sleeve that one cylinder as it most likely has quite a bit of damage. Be sure to check the head on that side and the valves for that cylinder and all eight pistons. Hard to tell at this point what caused the problem, possibly a casting flaw in that piston. I'd guess the piston broke at one of the ring grooves and clicking was the bottom portion of the piston hitting the top portion of the piston on the compression and exhaust strokes.
 
I hope a fordbarner out west can help OldHenry with a rebuild. If you lived closer we would have that car in my shop and the engine out tomorrow for a rebuild. I enjoy your pictures and travel adventures too much to have your engine down very long.
 
Seth Swoboda said:
I hope a fordbarner out west can help OldHenry with a rebuild. If you lived closer we would have that car in my shop and the engine out tomorrow for a rebuild. I enjoy your pictures and travel adventures too much to have your engine down very long.
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I was actually able to find the old master that rebuilt the engine who is still willing to fix it but he doesn't remove them any more so I've got to do that. That's something I've never done and didn't want to do but have got to do. Fortunately, old Chuck up the street used to do it all the time on these cars when he was young and is going to help me Saturday.

My goal is to get to the top of Mt. Evans for our 40th anniversary in June so got to get it back on the road not to mention the terrible withdrawals I'm still having daily from not being able to drive it. I didn't realize how theraputic my daily drive was until I could no longer do it.
 
It's easy to do. Thankfully these old fords are easy to work on. While your at it check out your clutch and throw out bearing. With two people you ought to have that engine out in a half hour or less. If you need anymore help please ask us.

PS. I like Egge pistons.
 
Maybe a good approach at this point would be to find a known good 59 short block and transfer all your good components over to it. Get that all together an back in the car as soon as possible. Then let the builder look at what he can do to save and possibly build that back to a spare short block. May be a quicker way to get Old Henry back on his feet for the anniversary trip.
 
Henry you have done the worst of the job getting the exhaust manifold nuts off, the rest is easy. I'll check your progress and will be in Utah on my motorcyle trip to Ca. If you need me I could swing by, will be around Utah around last week of May, Good luck Jon
 
Just a suggestion but you may wish to take plenty of pics & notes before you pull the engine if you have never done it before. Note all nuts bolts & wire connections. Our memories aren't quite what they used to be. I know I been looking for the shop big door key for the lock & can't find it. The 34 can't come out unless I tear the door apart or locate the key. A note to self of where I stashed it would have been great.
Hopefully your internal damage is slight & you can get Ol Henry on the quickly.
 
Old Henry said:
Easy??? I spent 3 hours last night just getting the four nuts off that connect the exhaust pipe to the exhaust manifold!!! :(
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LOL, well once you get that exhaust pipe disconnected it will be a breeze. I like what JM said. Why not just get a good short block or another block & crank machined and then transfer over your good parts? Unless you know for certain that the engine in the car now is original to the car it wouldn't matter what 59A engine block you had in there.

This whole thread makes me want to build another engine soon! I love me a flathead engine build.
 
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Seth Swoboda said:
LOL, well once you get that exhaust pipe disconnected it will be a breeze. I like what JM said. Why not just get a good short block or another block & crank machined and then transfer over your good parts? Unless the engine you know for certain that the engine in the car now is original to the car it wouldn't matter what 59A engine block you had in there.

This whole thread makes me want to build another engine soon! I love me a flathead engine build.
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For you guys that cut your teeth on a flathead engine block this all probably does seem like a "breeze" but for me that has never done it and never wanted to it's a disaster!:( All I know about "swapping blocks" is when I used to play with the wooden blocks as a kid with letters on them I swapped around to spell different words.:rolleyes:

My passion is driving (if you couldn't tell), not repairing. :o

P.S. My engine is original to my car so I won't be parting with it if there is any way to salvage it.
 
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