Bent a rod today :(

[Racks-on-racks]

Today crusing down the highway I started hearing a slight knock pulled over lost power thankfully my friend was in his evo right with me and we started it back up still knocking drove it to his apartment about 2 miles away and looked it over no coolant in the oil cam was good then we got out the old golf club shaft and did some listening as it ran welp the rod is done for dose anyone in Columbus Ohio or anywhere in Ohio have a b3 or a very simple drop in swap that is under 200 I'm trying to get this done by Tuesday it sounds like a long shot but I need to drive to and from work PLEASE HELP

[M3NTAL]

NOT sure what your asking...u need another motor by tuesday??

[zoom zoom]

I've got rods laying around...The block is screwed, rusted cylinders, but if you want to come yank a rod out of this block your welcome to it. If you just want a swap, I'd suggest hitting the Columbus junk yards, you've got gold right under your feet!

[Racks-on-racks]

NOT sure what your asking...u need another motor by tuesday??

Yes that would be great.

[Racks-on-racks]

I've got rods laying around...The block is screwed, rusted cylinders, but if you want to come yank a rod out of this block your welcome to it. If you just want a swap, I'd suggest hitting the Columbus junk yards, you've got gold right under your feet!

Idk how much pick and pull would charge for an engine, cause they always do stupid things with their prices.

[zoom zoom]

pick n pull has always been good to me on their prices, at or below the posted price on the internet...another junk yard up there tried to charge me 150+core, i had to go back a week later and the guy said 175+core, but I told him last week the guy said 125+core so it ended up being 150 for a tranny including core

[Racks-on-racks]

Ill be at pick n pull tomorrow looking for something to put in my car wish I had a list of things that could bolt up to stock tranny and harness

[TorqueEffect]

Ill be at pick n pull tomorrow looking for something to put in my car wish I had a list of things that could bolt up to stock tranny and harness

Well you can get a B3 out of an Aspire, or you can opt for the B6 which I have heard is a direct bolt in, since a B6 is just a B3, except a 1.6l instead of a 1.3L, externally they look pretty much identical, and you can use most of the parts off the busted B3 on it.

You can dig a B6 out of a 87'-90' Mercury Tracer, or an 85'-94' Mazda 323.

You can fit a B8, or a BP, but those are more involved, quite a bit more than just bolt in.

[Zanzer]

A knock would indicate bad bearing or loss of oil pressure before a bent rod. Unless it suffered a catastrophic failure which would indicate a broken rod. I've seen that happen with 2 B3's but it's usually accompanied by the addition of a nice new window in either side of the block. If there's isn't a hole in the front of the block, look at the rear under the intake. I have a 93 right now that has a broken rod and still runs (drove it up on the rollback) but it does have a noticeable miss and knock. Bent rods tend to manifest more as a miss and sometimes a vibration. I've bent rods in 2 V8's and they didn't knock, but the engine did have a miss due to the lower compression. Either way it sounds like it may be time for a new bottom end. The 1st gen B6 is basically a direct bolt in but grab the ECM and VAF if the donor car still has them. They aren't necessarily needed to make it run, but they do help it to run properly.

[Bathtub Tom]

Shouldn't the OP be investigating what caused the rod failure first?

[Zanzer]

^ I was going to suggest that he drop the pan and pull some bearing caps to see if he had spun a bearing instead, but since he needs the car running again by Tuesday it's kind of a moot point. If it's a bad bearing then there's a good change the crank journal is in bad shape as well so he would have to pull the crank and have it turned, or at least polished, before installing new bearings. Or he could just risk it and slap in some new bearings on a spun journal and chance it...I don't really condone this but I guess desperate times can call for desperate measures. The dependability of that option is nothing but a band aid and you're just prolonging the inevitable. BUT, and that's a big but, if caught early enough and the journals are in somewhat decent shape (very light scoring) then a "bearing slap", as I've come to call it, may last quite a while. That fix is a coin toss at best and can ultimately eat into his limited time frame if he takes the time to investigate and then finds it's not an option.

A broken rod is typically caused by over-rev, pin failure, or hydrolock and then continuing to run the motor for extended periods with a bent rod. The B3 has forged rods so it's takes a bit to break a rod, but again I have seen 2 instances of it. One was in a Pull A Part yard, the second is in a car I now own and the PO said he was "just driving down the road" when it happened, which suggests some underlying cause such as pin failure. I tend to believe him because he seemed pretty "Mr. Rogers" so I couldn't really picture him as the type who's out doing 9k clutch dumps at green lights on the weekends. I haven't pulled the engine and dissected it yet to investigate.

Either way, since to OP is working within a very short time frame and either problem requires a major repair, this would be a situation corrected quickest with a good used engine or bottom end. He can do the autopsy later after the car is running again with the new engine and if the damage is repairable on the old one, at least he now has a decent core to work with if he wants to build a fresh engine to install at his leisure.

[blkfordsedan]

I doubt it broke or bent a rod just driving along. My bet would be a bearing...

good to see you back on here Zanzer!!

[Zanzer]

I doubt it broke or bent a rod just driving along. My bet would be a bearing...

good to see you back on here Zanzer!!

That was my first thought as well. It was the "loss of power" comment that pushed me towards a broken rod since I just happen to have an engine with a broken rod that runs fine other than the noticeable miss and very noticeable knock. I've even fired it up to move it around (since the block is trashed anyway) and shown it to friends while stating: "broken rod, hole in block, can still drive to the store for a pack of smokes and a Dr. Pepper.....Mazda > ∞ "

I had an engine in an 88 that was trashed so bad the bearings had holes worn through them and mushroomed material out the edges (pics posted in a thread here somewhere)...funny thing is it purred like a kitten until you revved it passed 3000, that's when the knock started. No noticeable miss or anything. We even drove it around the block to check out the brakes and transmission before pulling the engine. I figured it was just bearing wear and was rebuild-able. You can imagine my amazement when I tore the engine down and saw the state of the bearings (or lack thereof) based on how good it ran other than the noise. That was my first insight into how awesome Mazda engines are. I've seen 302's and 350's with half that damage that sounded like a threshing machine while just idling.

It's good to be back. I have more free time these days so I should be around a bit more. Haven't gotten back on any projects yet but hopefully soon. I have something in the works I'm sure will pique your interest

[Racks-on-racks]

That was my first thought as well. It was the "loss of power" comment that pushed me towards a broken rod since I just happen to have an engine with a broken rod that runs fine other than the noticeable miss and very noticeable knock. I've even fired it up to move it around (since the block is trashed anyway) and shown it to friends while stating: "broken rod, hole in block, can still drive to the store for a pack of smokes and a Dr. Pepper.....Mazda > ∞ "

I had an engine in an 88 that was trashed so bad the bearings had holes worn through them and mushroomed material out the edges (pics posted in a thread here somewhere)...funny thing is it purred like a kitten until you revved it passed 3000, that's when the knock started. No noticeable miss or anything. We even drove it around the block to check out the brakes and transmission before pulling the engine. I figured it was just bearing wear and was rebuild-able. You can imagine my amazement when I tore the engine down and saw the state of the bearings (or lack thereof) based on how good it ran other than the noise. That was my first insight into how awesome Mazda engines are. I've seen 302's and 350's with half that damage that sounded like a threshing machine while just idling.

It's good to be back. I have more free time these days so I should be around a bit more. Haven't gotten back on any projects yet but hopefully soon. I have something in the works I'm sure will pique your interest

Well the member 91fordfestiva had my back yesterday and sold me a b3 for 75 bucks. So you can guess what I'll be doing all night after work today. And you're right I don't do burnout s or any of that I baby the crap out of my festiva cause he's got 260k miles on it and its my only car. Luckily I got a ride to work today from the wifey. But hey I'm not mr. Rogers lol I'm actually young haha ill let you guys know exactly what's going on with the other motor tonight cause gada degrease the new one first thing then drop in in there (car wash is gana hate me) lol and thanks for all the comments fellas

[blkfordsedan]

I suppose anything is possible. I just haven't personally seen or heard of any real short block failures on these engines....with the exception of broken rings or pistons, which seems to be fairly common. Heck, even worn out ones are usually salvageable with just honing the block and a low-buck rebuild. I had to laugh one time when I stopped at a Salvage yard to enquire about the engine in an 89 Tracer that was sitting in their yard. The owner refused to sell me the high mileage B6 engine as a core to rebuild. He said "those can't be rebuilt, they're throw away engines. They ain't like a 350 Chevy that you can rebuild an have something that will go another 100K miles". I just kept my mouth shut, LOL.