Valve springs are usually the weak link in the upper revs. Luckily when valve to piston contact occur the valves lose. Rods are most often thrown from excessive rpm, not excessive power and is usually on the exhaust stroke. It's not uncommon to seriously over rev and end up with a rod through the block. Many times the big end of the rod will distort and you end up with a spun bearing before you throw the rod. Luckily the TLs bottom end seems to deal with rpm pretty well.

I agree with everyone it's probably valves. The only other thing it could possibly be is if the ECU got wet.

 

Thrown rod...deja vu.

 

I'm not sure why people frequently have a hard time understanding how manual a manual transmission is. It's not 'computer controlled', It's foot and hand controlled. You can't over rev in a gear, hold the accelerator to the floor in or out of any gear and the rev limiter works fine. However, pick up speed, and downshift into a gear that the car could not normally drive in at that speed... You mechanically force the engine to spin faster than it should go in that gear. The car does not decelerate like magic to a safe speed before you let the clutch out. About the only thing stopping you is the syncros should strongly resist such a dramatic differential. However, if you're slamming the thing through gears, you might not notice. Shift slow, or pay attention, and this should never be a problem.

It could be the previous owners fault, or the new owner. It really makes no difference.

 

Agreed. And while the vehicle speed and the wrong gear are forcing the engine to spin past redline, it's technically "off" with no fuel being injected. That can be harder on the rods than to have it "running" at that kind of rpm.

This video usually helps illustrate an engine spinning but not "running", no combustion or power.

 

Hopefully he will let h what it turns out to be.... Too many threads started here and the OP never finishes them to let us know.

 

WOW i dont get the video (even though its cool)....how the car even running? there is no compression, no fuel....am honestly curious...

 

Dump the clutch in gear .. The wheels turn the engine via the trans.... The reverse of normal. Same idea as when you bump start a car.

They are towing the car. Camera mounted to the underside of the hood.

 

aah makes sense....but i still dont get how they were able to go 30mph....the engine should have stalled and he would have had to put it in neutral to keep going....

 

They were being towed up to that speed and then engaging the clutch. Anytime you let off the throttle to coast and leave the trans in gear you're doing the same thing as the video. The wheels are spinning the transmission which is spinning the engine. Instead if making power, the engine is requiring power to spin which it gets from the road speed of the car. Without compression such as in the video you're only having to spin the engine over. If the heads were on that engine with a working valvetrain you would have compression and the car would try to slow down quicker vs just overcoming friction and inertia.

Technically any time you let off the throttle to coast in gear the injectors are shut off so the engine is not "running" or making power, it's being powered by the transmission.

 

great effin point....totally forgot about the injectors being turned off while coasting IN gear....

makes total total sense....

thanks for explaining guys :gheyhug:

 

That engine had no head on it so no compression, very easy to turn over with the wheels.. They just kept turning it over till it pumped all the oil out.

 

One coil pack goes bad at a time, two only if the moons line up