Let a 17 yr old borrow the mustang for prom. Oops. Need advise

[83gt351w]

Before I approach my best friend, and tell him I think his son hurt my car, I wanted to make sure, he was the culprit. Long story short, he logged 200 miles on it for “prom”, which kind of pissed me off, but I didn’t say anything, but when my girlfriend dropped me off, I fired it up, and it sounded like a horrible exhaust leak under hood, and it was REAL gassy. I babied it home, popped the hood, and could tell it was coming from the valve covers. The next morning, I had a buddy stop by, I started it up so he could hear it, and no noise, just gassy. We pulled the valve covers to discover a bent pushrod and a broken rocker arm.

It is my opinion, this could’ve only happened one way. The kid tried to hot dog it, missed a gear, and over revved it. I want to be sure. Thanks guys.

[83gt351w]

Oops, I thought this was the general bs thread. Sorry

[stangPlus2Birds]

Send a note to the moderators to move the thread.

Fwiw, imho, if a broken rocker arm can be caused only by over revving, is "General Tech".

Originally Posted by 83gt351wIt is my opinion, this could’ve only happened one way. The kid tried to hot dog it, missed a gear, and over revved it. I want to be sure. Thanks guys.

Sorry to hear about your engine. :-P

Fwiw, nope, not even close.
Still, I'd say there was an ~~90% chance that is what happened.
But, if I offered someone 10-cents, with an ~10% chance that they would live/survive if I gave them a "Russian Roulette pistol", would they take the bet?
So, all things are relative.

Btw, get at least a cheap inspection scope camera (e.g. Amazon ~$20), and check the piston and value.


You're also likely talking about an engine that is over 30 years old, and has over 100K miles.
Unless it's 100% new parts, and blueprinted, and professionally assembled, and under 10K miles, it's "possible" that the lifter/pushrod/rocker-arm failed. Or, the rocker-arm was incorrectly installed.
Still, parts fail for many reasons. Even 100% brand new parts fail (infant mortality).

So, it's hard to say.
Imho, mention it to your friend that the engine wasn't working the same as when you lent the car.
But, you can not say (accurately ) it was 100% because of improper use.


Fwiw, imho, it's a very bad idea to ever loan a vehicle to anyone.

There are a zillion-billion-trillion Idiots on their cell phone, driving their huge *ss SUVs and crashing into things.

So, even if someone is Super Mega careful driving a vehicle, there is no way they can stop a Idiot from plowing into the rear of their vehicle, while it's stopped at a light, and in all likelihood totaling the victim vehicle. Btw, that happens exactly, many times an hour in America. It happens surprisingly all too common.


Good Luck!

[83gt351w]

I should clarify, this is an engine with 700 miles on it. Up to 900 now with him joy riding for 3 days. The nasty clattering I heard when I picked it up, I probably shouldn’t have driven it home. I figured he bent a push rod, and I might have finished it off breaking the rocker.

[stangPlus2Birds]

That sucks!

Who rebuilt the engine? What cam was used?
It may be an assembly/part issue, especially with such a low mileage engine.

[83gt351w]

I built the engine. It has a 296/302 duration cam, with a 496/520 lift. I was extremely meticulous during its build. Yes, I got on the car a bit, but a wanted about 2000 miles on it before I was gonna side step the clutch at 6,000 rpm. I just should’ve remembered when I was 17.

[Bryan Knebworth]

Let that be a lesson to us all! (At least it wasn't in a hurricane)

[massacre]

Bummer OP
I would definitely mention it.

[mcb82gt]

I wouldnt lend a car like that to my own son. Well maybe him, but they arent 17 and 200 miles is just plain rude. I treat another persons car with much more respect than my own.

[FB71]

I'm assuming flat tappet cam? check the cam lobes and lifters. There's TONS of bad lifters out there for past two years. All the cam manufacturers get their lifters from the same sources. I have a local machinist that specializes in Fords, and he's had several failures the past several months. Look up Ken Ellison / Ellison's Machine Shop, Glen Burnie MD. If the lifter and lobe are okay, then I'd feel comfortable blaming the 'operator'...

[Four Eyed Fox]

Its funny when I look back, I grew up driving V8s now its almost too much power for a kid,and I suppose it was back in the 80s LOL!

For the record, the OP is one hell of a guy, if a friend of mine asked me to loan my Fox body to his kid I'd be like '...wha?..."

[BoostMasterZero]

I don't want to rush to judgement here, but I want to say he did it. The reason why is this story is somewhat similar to my own experience. When I was in high school and my father had his 86 GT that he would pretty much never let me drive it. I can only think of a couple times. Well, ironically to your story, I was 17 years old and my father let me drive his car to my high school because it was my birthday that day. Let me tell you, I was so excited and giddy, I can't even really explain it. I woke up around 5AM just so I could drive around in the car for fun, not really getting on, just cruising since there isn't any wide open roads around unless I were to travel about 25 miles near the country side.

Anyways it starts becoming closer to 9AM or so whenever school starts, I completely forgot now, so I stayed closer to home driving around and I turned sharply into a right hand turn and gave the car some gas it went sideways, jumped over the median and blew out the left rear tires. I was first of all freaking out what my father was going to yell at me for doing this. Then I got out of the car and luckily there was no one around to get injured and nothing else on the car was damaged except the tire being blown out. I immediately called my best friend to rush over so we could go to my house to get the key to the garage since there were 4 more sets of pony wheels and tires. Mind you I did this while my father was still asleep. Then rushed back to the car and to my surprise, a cop was there, then to make matters worse, I freaking left the keys in the car and locked myself out. I forgot to mention when I called my best friend I told him to bring a slim jim, since we were in shop class and some tools to remove the lug nuts and a jack.

The real reason the cop was there was because he saw us putting a slim jim in the window and wanted to tow the car and/or talk to my parents. I was pleading with him not to and showed him my license that it was my birthday and I guess he looked up the tags and saw they matched the last name and he was nice enough to let me go. Me and my friend had shop class first period and had the best teacher who would always let us show up late if something came up. We got the wheel/tire on drove it to school and no one was the wiser. I felt to guilty, as soon as I got home I told my father exactly what I did. I knew I couldn't get away with since the rears had 275 Nittos and the fronts had 245 Yokohamas. My father just made me pay for another Nitto DR.

Sorry for the long story, but i'm pretty sure you friend's kid did it. First though you should just be straight with him and talk one on one and be like, "hey man, I know you're at a really exciting time in your life, but I have to tell, I just spent a lot of money rebuilding this engine, and now it doesn't seem to run great at all, is there anything you want to share with me?"

[84GT350_Annv]

I'm just still left with did you have a discussion with your friend about what if scenarios? Boundaries, mileage limits? As mentioned I would struggle letting any of my kids drive my cars when they were that age nor would I let them now in their 30s.

My 15 y/o daughter put her step sisters car through a barbwire fence and my step daughter took the rap for it as I understand she had dirt on her at the time.

My late 20 something step son wrecked my jeep grand Cherokee. Ok bad enough things happen. But he took off because he didn't have a DL it was suspended.

Things happen, my guess is that he probably did the deed on your motor but what was your check out process regarding his abilities, trust worthiness etc. Not blaming the victim, what do you think your friend will say? Is he the stand up type? And finally I hope it works out for you and the damage remains on the top end.

Steve

[erratic50]

Look for straight lines on the tire tread - evidence of spinning.

Anything is possible but keep in mind these things take abuse like crazy usually

I got my 86GT at age 17 ….. ported stock intake, B302 cam, opened up stock headers, etc

senior in highschool. Pounded the ever living piss out of it daily. 140 mph everywhere I went damn near. Raced and beat every classmate multiple times. Race and beat every rich old dude with a muscle car and a fat wallet, etc

never had to give it a 2nd thought whatsoever

All these years later still the same engine. Still bouncing off the rev limiter at least once every time I’m out with it

so my point is unless the valve springs weren’t up to the rpm the carb and ignition let it run …. I doubt it was the kid as the root cause. Something was up

but I’ll bet you good money the kid shoved his foot in it hood and proper several times. Might have missed a gear. Multiple times, etc