My last minute, emergency visit to Pittsburgh was an adventure. One-Hundred-fifty-seven miles from Dearborn, Mi., 1 mile West of Exit 161 on the Ohio Turnpike, my car, Betsy, threw a connecting rod bearing, at 75 MPH (212 kPH), without any warning. My car died, without making a noise, and I coasted from the left lane to the right shoulder. I spent 1.5 hours trying to figure-out what was wrong. After verifying that my car was not throwing any codes, that the fuel pump was still alive, and that I did not snap the camshaft, I pulled the distributor cap. My distributer was spinning freely. Since the timing belt was fine, it had to be the oil pump or the intermediate shaft. The tow guy, Daniel from DRC Towing in Cleveland, was very helpful. He towed me to his buddies house where I could attempt to repair the damage. I got my car on jack stands and dropped the oil pan. The first view was bad: The balance shaft housing was cracked and there were chunks of steel and aluminum in the oil pan. I pulled the balance shaft carrier and it got worse: The #1 piston was at the top of the cylinder, with only half the connecting rod attached. The crankshaft journal, for the #1 piston, had part of the rod bearing fused to it. There is a 2 inch (5 cm) section of the intermediate shaft missing. (Actually, it is the round chunk that I found in the oil pan.) On a positive note, there is hardly any damage to the cylinder bore. A little bit of light honing will take care of it. The engine block is good!! List of parts: Piston and connecting rod Connecting rod bearings Intermediate shaft Intermediate shaft bearings Crankshaft Crankshaft bearings Front and rear crankshaft seals Oil and filter It will be a 4 - 5 hour repair. The worst part is that I have to separate the engine from the transaxle. Betsy is worth it: She is a 1993 Dodge Spirit, which I bought while stationed in Texas in 1999. She may have 245,000 miles (394,290 km), but this is the first problem that I have had and I was averaging 38 MPG (16.16 kpl). Oh yeah, she has been paid for since 2001. She needs some paint, but is in great shape. My best friend, whom I was going to Pittsburgh to visit, came and rescued me for the night. We spent the night in Cleveland and had a great, yet short visit. She even got some footage for her film class. Betsy was towed, on a U-Haul tow dolly, back to Michigan. My mother drove a truck to Cleveland to rescue Betsy. Thank you Tina. Thank you Mom. Thank you Karma, for Daniel. Thank you Chrysler 2.5l common block for being durable.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 23:08:37 +0000
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