My dad Lost the motor in his Cobra (carnage pics)

[Southern3.0]

I was w/ my dad today in his '03 Cobra, where out on some back roads having some fun getting a few good runs in. Everything is going good on the third run down the road,

Good launch, shift to second.....

Here comes 7K rpm shift to 3rd......

At 6k RPM making 21 lbs of boost the Supercharger is screaming WHOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRR then all of a sudden...... ERRRRRRRRRRRRRR.....the motor cuts out and it smells like burnt rubber.

No big deal, probably just threw the blower belt, We coast to the side of the road a take a look. The belt is still on the Supercharger, Then I look at the crank pulley and notice its cocked upwards at least a half inch out of square w/ the motor and the front main is leaking oil.........Thats not good.

When a motor goes its gonna be expensive so you usually want it to be exciting and explosive like this
http://www.xsrpms.com:8888/dragnet/rides/maynard/blowup1.html

But no, we get the bitch way for a motor to die, the end of the crank snapped off in the timing cover.

Dunno how the hell that happens, its a forged crank and it broke after the front main cap so its not getting pushed on by the pistons there but its probably for the best. The motor only had 15,000 miles on it so the heads, block, pistons, and rods should still be good and that means it can be send it back to the shop that built it and have a new crank and bearings put in it

Oh here's a pic of the car

 

[LIMA BEAN]

Bummer about the cobra mill, hopefully the recip and block survived it. That other engine can you say Scattershield! I had a turbo 400 grenade during the mud drags once and prolly wouldnt be walkin or worse now if not for my lakewood shield. Good luck puttin it back together.

 

[4x4RangerGuy]

Wow, that sucks about the Cobra engine...looks like a very nice car though! Hopefully you'll get it all fixed up and be back on the track soon. What kind of numbers are you running?

I once saw a Jeep 4.0 I6 throw 2 connecting rods through the block...that was interesting.

 

[thegoat4]

Most cranks break at the front due to torsion dampener failures. Check that rubber ring in your pully and see if it had been slipping. Also, the rubber type is pretty fickle and sometimes does not keep up with engine mods. If you can get a viscous type for that engine, look into it.

 

[Southern3.0]

Wow, that sucks about the Cobra engine...looks like a very nice car though! Hopefully you'll get it all fixed up and be back on the track soon. What kind of numbers are you running?

I once saw a Jeep 4.0 I6 throw 2 connecting rods through the block...that was interesting.

The car was making 700 at the wheels, never had a chance to run the car w/ that setup but ppl w/ the same deal and good driving run high 9's. That pic of the car at the track is on its old setup and it ran 10.8's like that.

If you think about it, the crank was seeing way more power then 700 tho, 15% drive train loss would mean about 800 at the motor + what ever the accessory take + the 150 Hp the blower takes to spin = right around 1000hp. That crank is only rated for a little over 1000hp so I guess it was its time.

 

[ZMan]

Man that really sucks. But you are right, it woulda been sweet if it went like this..

 

[Mutant Pony]

The crank wouldn't have broke where it did if it weren't supercharged. My boss runs a procharger on a sbc. He lost his balancer at the track, went under the car and flattened the rear brake line, did some other cosmetic damage but, the worst part was the sound. He said it sounded like the driveshaft came out from under the car. It took out three main bearings, an almost new crank, and the block. Now he has a Dart block.
We tried putting a procharger on a four cyl. It ran about the same as stock with 6psi boost. Procharger said "your making about 100hp more and that is what it is taking to run the procharger. It spit the bearings out after a few short runs. It was a lot of fun building it though.

 

[Southern3.0]

Man that really sucks. But you are right, it woulda been sweet if it went like this..

Ive seen those pics befor on Corral.net, IIRC the guy said that motor went because of the balancer was bad or somthing. The funny thing is when were were on the side of the road looking at the messed up crank pulley I kept think about those pics. ether way Thats a bad ass way for a motor to go.

 

[bottledgt]

yeah i doubt the shop does much about crank failing like that