Cracked Block Has More Carnage Hiding Underneath…

Sometimes things go bad inside an engine. We’ve all see the carnage, and the incredible footage of engines letting go and detonating in a shower of sparks, flames and oil. It happens every weekend at tracks across the nation and is a huge part of driving the industry. Just imagine, if no racers ever blew their engines, how many engine builders would go out of business.

Plus most racers use catastrophe as a catalyst to upgrade, so breaking their current engine simply makes a bigger, faster one possible for next build. While most “blown engines” are a broken connecting rod, dropped valve or bearing failure, and that damage is generally contained inside the engine block. However, there is the rare occasion that the damage is so bad that even the engine block can contain the carnage, and that’s when you have videos like this, from LS engine experts Brian Tooley Racing.

Tooley’s team is disassembling a damaged engine and find that the block has been severely damaged, so they grab a hammer and knock out the damaged section, leaving a massive window in the side of the block. Inside, there’s even more damage, with one whole piston missing and nothing but the end of the connecting rod bolted to the crank to even indicate there was ever a piston present in that cylinder.

For all of the negative that comes from finding damage like this, and it’s certainly not ideal, there is now an opportunity for the owner of this busted bullet to upgrade his block, likely to one that will handle more power than this one, eliminating a weak link in his combination. He’ll need at new set of rods and pistons and could need a new crank. What that means is he has the option to build a bigger, more reliable combination, assuming he has it in his budget of course.