Has anyone ever had their 302 "blow up". I was coming home the other day traviling around 70-75 mph and my motor siezed up. Come to find out the crankshaft broke, timing chain and front cover snapped, and subsequently trashed my engine. I only have 95,000 miles on it. Seems a bit premature to me. Any feed back is welcome

 

Yes, definiately premature for sure if you only had that many miles on it. It could have been a small flaw in the crankshaft that was not detected while manufacturing and it ended up in your truck. There are numerous places to get a small block (just block) or long block (block with heads) OR you can take this opportunity to build a fast 302 or 351 up for the truck.

Have Fun & Keep on Truckin'
Dean

 

A broken crankshaft is an odd engine failure at any mileage. Had to be like Izzy said, the defect was always there waiting for the right time to let go.

 

If the Harm. bal. went bad and you did not change/notice/hear any it, it causes the crank to break at the 1&5 journal (the weakest part of the crank). I am willing to bet that your bal. is messed up and that caused the crank failure. Look at your bal. and see if you can tell if the rubber surround is out or if it looks like the bal. is in any way faulty ie. outer ring is off center, timeing mark sometimes will dig into the outer ring if its off and causes a squeaking noise, rubber inner material looks like its working its way out, outer ring is loose.

 

I really had no warning to the engine letting go. The oil pressure started flutuating (sp?) then blamo. I got a reman long block from ford (warranty) and I will have it back by the end of the week. Oh well. Since this is my daily driver and I dont expect to get rid of it since it is paid off (95 4X4 off road with dual shocks) I will just keep the motor pretty tame. Later on I will build the motor out. thanks for the feed back

 

Perfect excuse for a GT-40 Crate motor. They're like 340HP I believe. And they're not too much more than a new regular engine. You can get a rebuilt, but they'll rip you a new one without a core. Unless you feel like taking one out of a junker just to save the core cost. Good luck!,,,,98

Here's another option?

crate engine