And another:





The engine has since been completely torn down, with a lot of swearing and cussing, and I dropped the block and crank off with the machine shop this morning. We hope to get the newly line bored block back tomorrow and reassemble the engine Thursday night.

What happened?

We don't know. I called the Ford V6 specialists, Jeff called Ford and Dave Brown, and we talked with the shop. Nobody has ever seen a rear main cap failure on a Ford 3.8L V6. It happens on Ford 302s pretty frequently but only if they are making a lot of power and turned up to a lot of RPM, neither of which apply here. The data doesn't show any over revs, oil pressure issues, or anything that would be indicative of this type of failure.

The engine is relatively un-stressed, doesn't turn a lot of RPM, and all the parts removed from the engine look great. The bearings look like normal bearings with a bit of wear, I'd have no problem using them again. The engine even ran and behaved normally, mostly, although now we know that something was up with it I suspect one could detect an issue. Rods good, the crank is straight (checked this morning), pistons all good, we're a bit perplexed but as we develop theories and test them out we'll sort through it.

Anyhow, our goal is to have the engine back in the car and running this weekend for the RRR race. The removal and installation of this V6 into the Mustang sort of sucks. The old Datsun inline six was so much easier. Unfortunately we're stuck at around 2-3 hours for a removal just because so much has to be unhooked and access is limited around a vee engine in a small engine compartment. Hopefully we'll make.