i was driving on beltway 8 E. in houston and i was changing lanes at 65mph and all of a sudden smoke and flames came out from under the hood i pulled over and ran but the fire had put its self out and now im left with a crater size whole in my block and everything such as the rods,crankshaft, etc. is exposed and cv axle also blew out of tranny. is this unheard of or has it happened to anyone else here? i need a new engine fast for real cheap. mostly a 7afe but if i could swap in a 5sfe or a 3sge or whatever for just as cheap let me know anything helps in my situation i juss need a new motor for now and i dont care what kind as long as i can afford it "Limited Budget".

thnx wess-

thats a bearing that decided to take vacation, so one of your rods pushed itself out of the block.

My guess.

when was the last time you checked your oil?

the 7afe isnt that weak of a motor and even has extra high oil pressure, i'd so no or low oil and a spun bearing, rod seized to crank, crank said no, rod and crank got into a fight, and you lost.

do the 3sgte swap

>

^ the standard 6gc response to someones motor blowing up

another 7AFE would be the cheapest way to get it revived

If you want a cheap replacement, its not going to be "swap a 3SGTE". Thats just poor advice.

Chances are that if an unmodified 7AFE blew up on you, it was either poorly maintained especially lack of oil or had excruciatingly high miles and just gave out. If I were you I'd just get your hands on another 7AFE and take it from there. Its a very inexpensive motor, try looking on www.car-part.com or anything similar and start making calls.

Stay on top of maintainence with the new motor and it'll last a very long time. Good luck.

Depending on how bad the fire was, you're going to want to make sure you get a good harness with it too.

-Doc

Gotta love straight up metal on metal contact. I wonder how was the coolant temp before it happened? Good luck getting it fixed man, I've seen 7AFEs on here for 100 bucks.

>


so true

dude same thing happened to me about 3 yrs ago, same situation i was driving only abou t 65, one of the few times i wasn't dogging the engine. I kept it well maintaided but liek they said in the post a rod pushed up thru the block, destroyed mine and ate up the bearing. anyway i had to put a new 7afe in, and i've put 70k on sence then,( i commute far to work people, i drive alot) but my org engine mad it to 169k when it died. I haven't been o nthis forum long but this is the place to get the most help possible it's awesome.
i think in a couple years when i get a kick ass job i'll go a 3g swap then, but if your like how i was, i got a 7afe round $800, and $800 to install, but that mechanic knows me so dont hold me to that price
good luck

im sorry i didnt get back with yall sooner but ive been away and i realize that the 3sgte is a difficult swap and i only look on that in the future after i have lots of money haha but i have found a 7afe for 600 so i might juss do that this would be my third 7afe the first one i had threw a rod bc i didnt check oil and it was low, 2nd one i was driving 55 and it threw a rodbearing once again but i should have had oil bc i didnt have a leak and i had juss got an oil change 2 days before so im guessing it was burning oil, and this one i did have oil i had checked it before coming home from the mall right before it happened so im clueless i know it threw a rod im just curious on to how this may have happened my only guess would be a leak(i park in grass so i wouldnt see one if i had one) that maby sparked up on the exhaust manifold and sent a spark inside the block but that might be a crazy logic so im not sticking by it and thanks for all advice but i still havent found the reason wich is what im looking for anyone have ideas to maby what went wrong. it made a noise when starting kinda like a loose rod bearing but as soon as it cranked it sounded smooth and ran great this problem went on for almost a month after putting it in i thought maby it was the starter going bad but whatever it obviously wasnt.

wess-