How would ya'll feel if you blew up a Marmon engine?

[engatwork]

P Jones

Personally, I'd feel pretty bad about it. As the article stated, I doubt they will be letting any leadfoot drive it from now on.

[Dubyagee]

Whoops.



Seemed like the original repair did the most damage.

[Hatterasguy]

Jay Leno has a video about blowing up something expensive every now and again.

Last one was a Duesenberg I8 that dropped a valve seat.

Believe it or not you can get heads for them again, but they cost...a lot...I heard over $100k for the bare head.

[barry123400]

Well at least they have some pieces to send out to a lab for various testing. This additional material may allow special composition rods to be manufactured if felt they are needed. I hope the original casting is not really poor material..

[alamostation]

Oh! That type of Marmon.

If it was a race car engine and it blew up racing it, that is the price of admission.

From the title, I was expecting a Marmon diesel truck engine. In that case I was going to be amazed that the frame of the truck lasted long enough for an engine to fail. Sort of like someone asking how they replace the Cummings engine in a Dodge Ram.

[jplinville]

Originally Posted by alamostation

Oh! That type of Marmon.

If it was a race car engine and it blew up racing it, that is the price of admission.

From the title, I was expecting a Marmon diesel truck engine. In that case I was going to be amazed that the frame of the truck lasted long enough for an engine to fail. Sort of like someone asking how they replace the Cummings engine in a Dodge Ram.

Cummings??

[retmil46]

Originally Posted by jplinville

Cummings??

Must be Clessie's second cousin, Bob.

[t walgamuth]

Parnelli was known as a guy who would run flat out and win or blow back when he was an active driver.

I seriously question whether he was abusing it on the parade lap. But the car is 100 years old with poured babbit bearings probably and it probably just let go.

Put him in a race car though and I bet he's still pretty fast.

[Air&Road]

This post brings to mind a hangar neighbor of mine who has BEAUTIFULLY restored a pre War small airplane called an Aeronca Chief. It has VERY early Lycoming flat four. The cylinders are cast integral with the crankcase halves. No parts, can only bore the cylinders once.

He flies it occasionally and he changes the oil every two months whether it has been started or not for corrosion prevention purposes. Most people at the airport make fun of his oil change regimen, and I ALMOST do, but given the EXTREME rarity and the impossibility of finding parts, I think it's probably overkill, but justified.

[barry123400]

White post restorations where forced to install a govenor on one fire truck engine restoration. It was obvious that over it's lifetime it had blown up several times previously.

They could not determine why so it got a govenor to keep the revolutions really down. That early block was very large. They got it as it had blown again at some point in time.

.I think that restored early fire engine is owned in virginia by a fire station company. White post did the whole restoration as well. Gold leafing and all. It had set for years or decades before the restoration.

[t walgamuth]

I bet Parnelli did not lose any sleep over it. A race car driver just walks away from broken race cars.

[MS Fowler]

Do Marmons use "fork and blade" construction of the connecting rods?

[Air&Road]

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I bet Parnelli did not lose any sleep over it. A race car driver just walks away from broken race cars.

Yeah, a pure driver does. Folks like you and I have to drag home the remains and make 'em go again.

[flainn]

Originally Posted by Air&Road

He flies it occasionally and he changes the oil every two months whether it has been started or not for corrosion prevention purposes. Most people at the airport make fun of his oil change regimen, and I ALMOST do, but given the EXTREME rarity and the impossibility of finding parts, I think it's probably overkill, but justified.

Oil's cheap, and you can 'fuge it and use it as fuel in a beater Benz and recover some of the cost.

[barry123400]

Originally Posted by flainn

Oil's cheap, and you can 'fuge it and use it as fuel in a beater Benz and recover some of the cost.

Depending on the grade it should be reusable as base oil in engines again. Especially those times it was never run between changes.

An early engine like that might use too high a viscosity and perhaps not a detergent based oil. Or raise it to the boiling point of water to expell any accumulated moisture. If there are no basic additives it should be reusable in the same crankcase. Depends what the oil used for that application is exactly.