2006 Chrysler 300C - Piston Through Block

My 300c I put gas in and started it and that was it the engine was done
The mechanic told my husband that someone revved the hell out of my car well I’m the only one who drives it
He said the piston went through the engine block I had no warning nothing just poof

Which engine is in there? Chrysler had some sludge problems. If it doesn’t get oil to the right places kablamo. I had a sludge prone Camry do the same to me years ago. Going up a hill and pow, hole in engine block. How many miles on this thing?

The 300C only came with the Hemi V8. I have never seen a piston go through a block. Piston rods, yes but never a piston. Was there enough oil in the engine? Did anyone check the oi; and the size of the oil puddle when the engine blew? Not that it make any difference monetarily because you are long out of warramty but it would be nice to know if you caused it by running out of oil or it just happened.

How many miles on it and how long have you owned it. If you are not the original owner , you have no idea how it was driven.

Maybe a crack in the block let go?

A crack that didn’t fully separate for 13 years?
:thinking:

Keep in mind the OP is relating 3rd hand info to us and is not likely a gear-head. I’d guess the hemi threw a rod through the block and not the whole piston.

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I think that the type of damage got a little bit distorted in the process of hearing and telling.

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Blocks can crack post-manufacture.

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Likely the rod and not the piston. The car is 14 years old with an unspecified number of miles and no accurate info on how it was maintained.

It could be that it was a dead man walking and was going to give up at some point anyway. A high miles engine may give up at a much lower RPM than a near new one so revving the hell could be a bit of an exaggeration.

Granted, a block can crack from new but it would be highly unusual. A retired machinist friend of mine here used to work at a foundry and machine shop. They would cast engine blocks and throw them out back. They were allowed to “ripen” as he calls it in the sun and rain for 2 years before machining. This allowed the cast iron time to alter its shape and prevent problems after he machined them.

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That’s actually what the Camry did that I was driving…connecting rod went bye bye…picked it up off the road.

A friend of mine threw 4 rods in a SBC at the local 3/8 mile dirt track. Two went through the bottom and cut the oil pan in half. The other two went up through the aluminum intake manifold.
One cut the rear float bowl off of a Holley double pumper and the other cut the front bowl off with both bumping the hood up quite a bit.
Set the engine up loose and hit 8500 RPM things are likely to come unglued.

I had a 56 Desoto that threw a rod out the oil pan with the speedometer pegged all the way to the right past the numbers. I had bought it well used and tuned it to the hilt, done a lot of street racing with it. For some reason people thought the little 330 cube Hemi was slow. Maybe it was the yellow and brown paint with rust blotches or some of the missing grill teeth. I threw a few rods in my younger days but it was never a Mystery why they went. There weren’t any computer nannies to say whoa, you can’t do that to your engine.
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It also came with the 3.5 HO V6

If the critical engine fluids had the correct spec’s for the car and the levels were ok at the time your shop will have to take the engine apart for a look-see if you want to know why it happened. Was any work done on the engine in the past 2-3 months prior to this happening? Did anyone else (like a teenager) ever drive the vehicle besides you? If something gets loose and falls off and is sucked into a cylinder while the engine is running something like this could happen. Valve seat, valve, misc hardware, etc.

Not according to ant source I can find. The 300 Touring cane with the 3.5 Liter V0 but the 300C was Hemi V8 only.

The “C” is the top trim level, 5.7 liter V-8. The base, touring and limited models came with a V-6.

I stand corrected. Earlier models of the 300C did come with the 3.5 HO.

THAT is some fine engineering right there! Imagine the precision of design and assembly that fully half the engine throw rods at the same time! I am impressed. :clap:

Spinning 8500 with a small block and keeping it together takes some expensive parts.

Not fine engineering so much as foolishness. He ran a few Fords before the Chevy and managed to scatter them at every race. One weekend at his house I was there while he was putting the motor together.
He was having the crank turned .010/.010 and using STD bearings. Someone had told him this would decrease friction and allow the engine to rev faster and higher.

I assume he did the same with the Chevy. The old definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
If he had gone say .005 on the crank with STD bearings he would probably have been ok. Other than his wife who was getting pretty tired of his sob stories and blown money on late Sat. nights.
I don’t remember for sure but I don’t think that he ever completed one heat race without scattering metal and oil. I think the Chevy let go on the first lap and that was the final nail in the racing coffin.

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