this photo shows the result of my engine throwing a rod, it's located right behind the exhaust manifold on the bottom. prior to this happening there was no indication that something was wrong inside the engine or that it was about to happen.does anyone know if it is the result of some mechanical failure that could have been prevented or is it one of those things that could happen when it's time to go or what? this is the same engine('02 2.3 v-tech) that i've been posting about for the last month or so, back to the drawing board with another engine for me.

 

I had a 1933 Chevrolet 6 cylinder that threw a rod w/o any warning. It had a splash/pressure lube system. I used to monitor the pressure/temperature whenever I had it on the highway. I was going along around 50 MPH and all of a sudden a rod let go. I found out later that the reason the engine came apart was that the rod/main bearings in those engines were "babbit" and you should only use a non-detergent oil on these types of bearings. I was using a 10W30 detergent oil.

In your case, it may be an oil pressure/quantity issue. I don't know, possible metal fatigue. When you get it torn down you may be able to understand more why the failure occured. My brother's 2005 Toyota Camry 4 cylinder came apart at 95K. He was just tooling down the road at 70 MPH, when bang. He never did tear the engine down, but found pieces of "yellow" metal (brass?) when he looked into the oil fill hole. I told him to take it to Toyota, but they were not interested in looking into why it failed.

 

rod failure is a result of over-reving. rarely a problem on a stock engine.
my question to you is: have you rebuilt the engine and/or have you made any modifications?
im an engine builder and the cause of a rod going through a case is due to over revs,lack of lubrication or inproper balancing of the engine. in 30 years of fixing cars for a living ive yet to see a honda engine throw a rod unless it was modified beyond its capabilities.
case in point last week my shop was scrapping a mazda 626 with a 4 banger. it still ran so we drained oil and coolant and floored the thing till it blew (slow week)
it lasted 20 minutes until rod failure and the damage remained in the block.

 

Connecting Rod Bearing Failure - 1997 Honda Civic - YouTube

 

another point. a hydraulic engine failure due to coolant in the chamber will result in a bent rod.
ive done an intake job on a chevy 4.3 and upon start up i heard a clang then a rod knock. on dissasembly i fould the equivalent of a small paper clip mangled into the piston crown, likely fell into the intake runner upon removal of the intake. it doesnt take much to bend a rod, water will destroy one.
that was a bad day at work.

 

Kyle, do you have any idea what caused my brother's Toyota engine to fail? Where would the brass looking material come from?

 

i dont, brass is likely from valve guides which then causes oil to leak into the combustion chamber resulting in hydraulicing the cylinders

its pretty hard to blow an inport engine such as a Toyota or Honda. my shop just replaced a Honda i-vtec 4cyl in an Element that had failed due to a coolant leak and subsequent overheating, the owners drove it while overheating which is a NO NO these days. an aluminum cylinder head will warp in a heartbeat these days once it gets too hot. this engines cylinders were full of coolant, irrepairable. rods were bent and the head surface was warped like a banana.

 

That's probably what happened, thanks.