Engine explodes out of tractor pull semi truck

[ElliotSmith]

A diesel engine explodes and literally shoots out of a tractor pulling truck.

Apparently this type of thing is fairly common in the sport of tractor pulling, but it's much more common for the engine to simply explode.

 

[mcastillo356]

A diesel engine explodes and literally shoots out of a tractor pulling truck.

Apparently this type of thing is fairly common in the sport of tractor pulling, but it's much more common for the engine to simply explode.

They push it to the limit. It's part of the spectacule. No idea about the physics behind

 

[Borek]

Huge power, huge energies and huge booms, they always live together.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Does the radio still work?

 

[Mark44]

The muffler bearings must have seized ...

 

[cosmik debris]

You can buff that out with McGuiares.

Cheers

 

[DaveC426913]

That engine was not made out of engine.

 

[Baluncore]

No idea about the physics behind

Looks like the LH engine mount broke under tension due to high torque, so motor lifted and rolled to the right. The gearbox mount and tail-shaft then broke, fuel and air stopped, exhaust blocked, so the engine stopped suddenly, with all rotational energy transferred to all engine as a lump. The twisted RH engine mount finally let's go as the motor rolls forward out of the engine bay.

 

[DaveC426913]

Looks like the LH engine mount broke under tension due to high torque, so motor lifted and rolled to the right.

That happened to me, but writ small. My first car was a Toyota Tercel. I remember wondering what those lumps of rubber were, under the front-end.
Thereafter, the car started bucking.

 

[Rive]

That engine was not made out of engine.

That reminds me of that old joke about CPUs.

CPUs are working with smoke, you now.
Once the smoke is leaked out, they stops working.

 

[sandy stone]

https://ntnoa.org/LucasSmoke.htm

I once owned an Austin-Healy. Enough said.

Oh, and years ago a guy I knew brought home his parents' Buick with a 455 engine, with a dent in the hood. The motor had tried to jump out of the car when a mount broke (under extreme duress).

 

[ElliotSmith]

Apparently engine explosions are very common in tractor pulling.

 

[Rx7man]

Looks like the LH engine mount broke under tension due to high torque, so motor lifted and rolled to the right. The gearbox mount and tail-shaft then broke, fuel and air stopped, exhaust blocked, so the engine stopped suddenly, with all rotational energy transferred to all engine as a lump. The twisted RH engine mount finally let's go as the motor rolls forward out of the engine bay.

Bringing up an old post, (I was looking for a specific tractor engine blow-up and came across this) but you're not correct there, if you look when they're pulling the truck away, the crank, harmonic balancer, etc are still all in the frame.. this is a split block.

At the power levels these things are at, everything really is stressed to the max, often putting out 10x the factory rated power
I'm looking for the full video of this one, it threw the top half of the engine out 30 ft in front of the truck

Here are a few more impressive ones
I saw in one article the forged cranks (they weigh like 100 lbs) flex up to 5 degrees at these power levels.. *yikes*
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/guy-runs-over-his-own-engine-after-it-explodes.647888/





Power driven diesel has had a few spectactular blow-ups
On the dyno


and going down the track at 100something MPH (this one was caused by a runaway, engine let go at 8200 RPM)