Have seen this scenario plenty. Engine slings a rod through the side of the block and destroys the starter. This did not happen the other way around. We all know that and so do you. What can you blame that on? When you break something racing them’s the berries. Get over it and move on to your next POS. The Zone is not responsible for this and you know it.
Wow, some of you guys are dense or need to grow a science of humor. I am here to help. First watch this small video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex9WM0bWQI8 If that doesn’t help we will need some help with this next procedure.
You will need a 1/2 inch socket wrench
a jack stand
a long pry-bar or a small pry-bar and a long pipe
Now put the socket wrench in your mouth like a dog caries a bone.
You will need to lay on the ground face down.
Have you helper (note not a friend) place the jack stand between your legs
With the pry bar placed on the jack stand for leverage try to get a grip on the sick that is lodged in your rump.
Have the helper pry with all there might!!!
There we go now we all feel better.
“some of you guys are dense or need to grow a science of humor”
I think that humor is really more of an art than it is a science.
;-))
…or a sense, maybe…
If you can get Autozone or wherever to replace your engine, I want to know what store, as I have an air freshener to return that knocked my car out of alignment by hanging askew from the rearview mirror.
Yes, of course it is a “sense”, even if dickc doesn’t know it.
This is one of the more interesting threads in a while. I’ll offer my non-expert opinion.
Let’s go back to the original question:“Ford Escort Broken - Who is to blame?” I think the blame goes on the person(s) who took a 25-yr-old less-than-$500 Escort, put in a '95 Contour engine, added a turbocharger, and went racing (4500 RPM!).
Jeez, what did you expect? If you are talented enough to cobble up that racing machine, you must know enough that you realize you don’t have any claim on anybody else. That’s why we are trying to figure out if your description of the car and the failure scenario is just bragging and if your “must be the fault of the starter” is a joke. If it IS a joke, then it is not going down well here.
Got back from the AZ… well, they’re not going to replace the engine for me, but I did get them to take back the parts of the starter in a bag to cover the ‘core’ charge on a new one.
They drove a hard bargain, but I’ll take it…
and just in case you’re still reading this thread wondering if it was a joke, well, duh. It is.
yeah right. Me thinks the kid is not being serious. Like AZ is going to replace an engine? They wouldn’t even replace the starter due to abuse. Every warranty I’ve ever seen has substantial fine print listing abuse, racing, commercial use etc. as voiding the guarantee.
I’m curious; now that you’ve blown a hole in the Ford Contour engine, what are you going to use the new starter on? To weigh down the parts box at the swap meet?
;-))
Excellent question, MB!
Now that the OP has stated that this whole “issue” was a joke, I guess that we know the answer to your question.
Starter isn’t a contour part. It’s an '86 Escort part, as is the tranny. Starter bolts to the tranny. Oil pan is an old Escort part too.
I’ve already begun to put the turbo parts on my spare engine to swap it in and fix this one at my leisure.
Pulled the head off the blown motor and checked the piston this morning. Damage isn’t really all that bad, couple bent valves and obviously destroyed piston, but bearings, cylinder walls, etc all look good as one could expect out of a motor found in the woods. Bet I can build this one back up before the NEW starter I just bought at Auto Zone blows up my spare engine too. 
[That was a joke, btw, in case you’re still wondering]
I’m ruling out detonation, pinging, poor oiling, etc as causes of the failure, and current top suspects are too much boost and just plain old over revving.
I’ve already got a spare Contour engine for just such an occasion, mountainbike.
Ouch! Nice photos.
I’m guessing that your “top suspects” are really, really good suspects. Perhaps an adjustable wastegate would be a nice addition. Those motors really weren’t made to take much (any) extra boost.
Turbocharged engines normally have a lower compression ratio than non-turbocharged versions of the same engine. If you simply added a turbo to that old engine without taking steps to reduce the compression ratio, that would be one my leading suspects for that catastrophic engine damage.
Of course, on an engine that old, with an unknown history, there could be other demons lurking, but the first thing that you should look into is reducing the compression ratio–through either a different head, or different pistons, or an extra head gasket, or…
Doubled up the head gasket to reduce the compression. That method seemed to work running 93 octane… well work until the catastrophic failure, that is.
Don’t know if I should even respond to this thread anymore but some food for thought on the starter may be applicable in this case. The starter did not fail like that because it was defective. It failed because:
A. Something came through the pan and whacked it.
B. The starter motor itself was overrevved. The starter is incorrect for the application and the car is a cobbled together race car. (Cobbled together not necessarily meaning bad)
If the starter drive gear by chance stayed engaged with the ring gear due to improper fit or an electrical hiccup then do the math regarding the circumference of the starter gear and the ring gear.
Figure 40 or so inches on the ring gear and 3 inches on the starter gear. The engine went at 5500 RPM and if the starter gear was engaged at that time this means the starter armature could have been hitting 75kish RPM before exploding. In the nano-second this happened maybe it’s possible there was a momentary lockup and this led to the engine damage although I would think the ring gear would have some damage.
Just theorizin’ anyway…
I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but several years ago I replaced the starter on an old Caravan with the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine. A few months later the customer was driving 250 miles away, the engine made a rattling noise, then a bang, then died. She looked under the car, saw the starter hanging by the cables, and just assumed something was wrong with the starter. The next morning she was at the shop, demanding we pay the $500 tow bill and then fix her starter under warranty. The look on her face as we explained that she ran out of oil and blew up her engine and the tow bill was her responsibilty was priceless.
You need to find another hobby, or take some engineering classes.
As long the remaining connecting rods in your engine are o.k., just mix some oil in the gasoline and run it like a 2 cycle. You can start the engine by jacking up a drive wheel and spinning the tire. Problem solved!