Wanna see something funny?

[noke325]

So I got my first e30. An '88 325 Super eta. The lady I bought it from said "It just quit running" so I knew it might be bad. I noticed the oil looked a little creamy and was overfull so I put a wrench on the crank and only turned it about an 1/8th of a turn and it stopped. Then I knew it was bad. I figured I'd pull the plugs and found this on #5



I suspected one of the valves broke and did all that damage so I pulled the head and laughed my ass off.





I've been an auto technician for 15 years and this almost tops anything I've ever seen.

[fiftytakedowns]

funny isnt the word I would have chose

[lifeiskaos]

holy shit!

[Wh33lhop]

Wooooow.

[LowR3V'in]

Poor crab :(
m50 or m30 swap time. Or are you
going to put another crab motor in?

[downernsp]

Wtf!!!!.................

[E30SPDFRK]

lol awesome. And I thought mine was bad.

[m3maker]

amazing isnt it?

[Aptyp]

what the hell happened?

[MR 325]

Nice!!

[Spaz]

Thats pretty awesome.

[Danny]

Almost tops everything?

Go on.

[noke325]

Well, the worst I ever saw was one I actually witnessed. First, a little back story. I work at a Chevy dealer in Roanoke, Va I have been here since '99. In 2002 we were supplying crate engines to a stock car road racing series. We also traveled to each race for support. This guy that had one of our engines comes sailing down the front straight at VIR, 4th gear, 6grand, well over 130mph. He's trying to get around another car on the outside and figures he'll try to beat him into turn 1. So he waits till the last second to downshift and goes straight from 4th to 2nd. the needle bounces off the tach at 9000. I dont know if you know about small-block chevys but, crate engines dont rev that high.

Needless to say, the tow truck was pulling him back to the paddock. We got the engine out and sold him one we had on the truck. Pulled the engine apart and found EVERY piston had holes in them. Every valvewas bent like a pretzle, the cam was broken in 3 pieces, the cam sprocket was broken crank was bent, pushrods were in the shapes other than straight. It was just total destruction. The WORST I've ever seen.

I think my little eta is funny because there is NO WAY, that it "just quit running.", like the lady said. She had to have driven that car at least a few miles after the exhaust valve head snapped off. No matter to me. I wasn't concerned when I bought the car that it might(does) need an engine. I have 2 other project cars and I have been doing this stuff for 15 years. replacing an engine is cake.

I found a salvage yard that "says" they have an '88 super eta engine. If it turns out to be right I will putting that back in. If its not, I will probably just gather all the stuff to put an i engine in it.

[noke325]

what the hell happened?

The exhaust valve head snapped off. When I was disassembling I found some corrosion on the injector harness terminals. If that caused the injector to close too soon it could have made that cylinder super lean. Which would have caused the exhaust valve to get VERY hot. Kaboom!

[gw ix]

Look at all the carbon in there, I'll bet it ran until the rod went through the cylinder. Your gonna have to RTV that plug back in there (what threads) and JB weld that cylinder, oh oh oh and straighten that rod with the "big" water pump pliers, top your oil off and bam your good to go!!!

I didn't know super eta's went to 12,000 rpm's