365GTC Blown Motor Repaired

And that is why a lot of us do not use Ferrari rods.

Broke in the middle of the beam, no sign of bearing or piston issues. Seen that before.

 

Probably caused by habitual high revving a cold motor; first you bend a rod or two then after awhile one of them snaps. Dennis Etcheverry can likely weld up the block; if he can't then hopes are slim.

john

 

High revving a cold motor can cause damage, but not this kind of damage.
This is caused by bad material, overrev event(s), probably but not necessarily a combination of both. An overrev (misshift or otherwise) many years ago could have laid the seeds for this failure today. Perhaps it was there before the poor guy driving it enthusiastically had it explode under his feet. Or perhaps not and a misshift on his behalf cracked it. No way to know in hindsight.
Such is the nature of metal fatigue - once a crack starts, it progresses slowly until it gives.
The only sure way to prevent it is to install more resilient rods, a rev limiter and a rev monitor (as misshifts cannot be prevented by a limiter, monitoring them is useful). Most modern cars have overrev event registers in their ECU.

 

This is most interesting (unless you're the owner), so thanx for posting. s

 

Title and above descrption perhaps slightly misleading. I saw Bill yesterday morning and asked about this. All he's done so far is taken the engine apart.

 

Photos in article would seem to indicate that this is a 365 GTC/4 engine rather than a GTC.

 

The article says the motor is a 4-cam, which would also point to the 365 GTC/4. The 365 GTC has a 2-cam motor.

 

I've read about quite a few 365 GTC/4 engines having porous blocks and now this one with a cracked block. I wondered if these block problems are isolated to the 365 GTC/4?

 

When I was asked for some advise/assistance, C/4 was mentioned.

 

The picture of the engine with the heads off, clearly shows a 4-cam engine. So it's not a 365 GTC. steve

 

These block problems are rod problems. No block can survive a broken rod.

 

You are of course right about the rod problem in this case. I'd read the article when posted and forgotten the cause and not the fault of the block. I have heard of quite a few porous blocks on the 365 GTC/4 though.