After getting a pretty big response from a photo we posted of an N54 engine eating a serpentine belt THROUGH THE CRANK SEAL, we realized that this kind of thing happens all the time.  Now that everyone has a full resolution digital camera in their pockets, we called out to our Facebook page followers to post up your carnage and let the people cringe, and make a contest out of it.  We ended up calling it the Competition of Bad.  Ultimately the winner would be decided by the number of likes the photo received, which ended up leading to a stunning upset between two very entertaining VW failures.

The first was an exploded 1.8t like we’ve never seen before, with most of the block completely missing, leaving most of a cylinder head and a few dangling cylinder walls.  That’s…about…it.  (See #5) The car however was a sub 9-second drag racer, and when you are pushing an engine like that you invariably end up with some catastrophics.  This would ultimately be beat out by something much lower key, but still exceptionally high on entertainment value.  It featured an 8v 2.0 ABA engine that had gotten so hot on a rally stage, that the plastic cam cover under the valve cover had completely melted and formed around camshaft as if it was vacuum formed.  Apparently, all other plastic parts attached to the engine had a similar fate, with temperature sensors and hoses reduced to the likes of a neglected candle. (see #11)

HOWEVER, there were so many simply stunning failures that instead of just declaring a winner, we saved the images to be immortalized here on the blog, sort of a Hall of Shame.  Below you’ll find the first 25 entries out of the 67 total, as well as causes of failure, so hopefully we can learn from other’s mistakes before it’s too late.

eEuro Competition of Bad 2017

1. “Bad Timing guides on my 540i. Ate the timing cover. Ended up doing the job myself with the tools rented from you guys.” -Peter G

Glad we could help get you the right tools to do the job, too bad it went just a little bit too long to start out with.  Don’t neglect your engine timing people! -ed

2. “This picture only captures part of the damage that was found inside the engine of my ’76 BMW 2002. I later found out that I drove the car on 2 cyl to the shop that built my new engine. All four piston rings were shot, two pistons had holes and chunks taken out of them, and the head looked like this. Cause unknown, sort of….(years of abuse)” – Matt D

That definitely looks like a well used engine, glad you got that little white 2002 back together and on track at eEuroFest, it was great seeing it go around the Autocross! -ed

3. “Haven’t had much Euro carnage yet… fortunately. Last year my 9-3SS randomly had an electrode break off the spark plug in cylinder 2. Caused the ignition coil to fail and blew the electrode fragment out the exhaust. Pretty lucky result, IMO.” – Paisley S

At least you are using the correct NGK spark plugs, but bad and worn out ignition coils are definitely something to be concerned about.  Don’t know if this is the chicken or the egg, but either way it’s good you were able to catch an issue before it became any worse! -ed

4. “When that transmission whine in a c900 finally tells you your time is up.” -Nick M

That transmission has more missing teeth than a retired hockey player, it’s unfortunate how many times we’ve also been on the receiving end of this failure at eEuro.  These transmissions can only reliably hold a certain amount of power for any given time, something that can’t be forgotten when building a C900 race car. -ed

5. Mike P submitted this along with a video Viewable Here of this 1.8t grenading as hard as it can, where else but at the drag slip.  The VW still ran a sub-9 1/4 mile, despite losing most of the powertrain down onto the front splitter.  He didn’t include a description, but our guess is the boost did this one in. This is the view from the floor, looking up at the bottom of the valves, dangling cylinder walls, and part of a crankshaft.  -ed

6. James H submitted OUR photo here that we took at the 2017 New England Dustoff, without a description.  If we were the bettin’ type, we’d have to say this was the result of an overrev, causing a valve to drop and the carnage to begin. – ed

7. “Poor design or “Money Shift””- Thomas Henry

Actually, we see this all the time and the latter may be the correct answer in this case.  The Saab 9-3ss Balance Shaft Tensioner is a known weak point in the 2.0 turbo engine, and generally only lasts around 100k miles.  It’s a good idea to try and replace this around then to avoid catastrophic engine loss, however we have seen people drive around with this part broken for thousands of miles.  The tell-tale sign is a rattle from the timing cover. -ed

8. “This is what it takes to change the Alternator out in 2004 XC90″ -Geno K

Yikes, we will keep that in mind Geno -ed

9. “c900 Pinion failure at speed.” – Richard BC

The Classic Saab 900 went through many changes to the gearbox throughout the years, including to the material of the pinion bearing housing (the main bearing that handles the torque coming out of the transmission and into ring gear).  We recommend getting a steel pinion housing next time you build a transmission, if you haven’t already.  Here’s some great info on the topic. -ed

10. “1998 v70… Most likely poorly built/unbalanced cv axle broke off with the shaft still in my transmission… couldn’t handle all that torque lol.. cv axle was days old” -Jon M

Glad you didn’t buy that from us Jon! -ed

11. “Over heated the ABA in my MK2 rally car during the Headwaters Rally because: leading 2wd and NEVERLIFT. That’s the plastic cover that goes over the camshaft in all its melty glory. The sensors and everything plastic touching the head is gone. lol” -Dave G

This won our contest, and is quite impressive.  You really have to work to get your plastic engine parts to thermoform over each other, well done.  For our readers, below is what a stock one looks like. -ed

12. “What happens when you think you know how to tune a turbo BMW but you’re really just running lean as ****!” – Jake S

Depending on the compression ratio, some BMW’s take well to turboing.  HOWEVER, only if you have a solid tune and a wideband sensor hooked up to the exhaust to keep an eye on how everything is doing in the combustion chamber.  When an engine goes lean (too much oxygen, not enough fuel) under boost conditions, things get very hot, and you don’t want the result; in this case a very melty piston. -ed

13. “Just a burned piston and ring. Won the race against the Kawasaki zx6r though! E30 m50 turbo. Mistake was trying to run to much boost on pump gas. Octane booster now and no problems.” -Dave W

Once again, a lean condition under boost caused a minor meltdown.  Be careful out there! -ed

14. “Noodled all 12 exhaust valves in my E36 325i…still made 185-190psi compression in all 6 cylinders and got me back to my shop…rebuilt the motor but wrecked my NA Miata I had for 8 years during the rebuild…it was a rough month…” -Jay L

Consider “Valve Noodling” added to our official vocabulary -ed

15. “My 2001 Viggen at 74,000miles decided it didn’t like its piston anymore……some of it stayed in engine, some of it decided it wanted to exit the engine via thru the block! The SAAB service center said it was a faulty MAF that caused the catastrophic explosion ” -David W

Usually a faulty MAF will just cause a check engine light.  This one may have been on a little too long, causing mixture issues and ultimately complete destruction of what is generally known as a robust motor. We have to chalk this one up to a mix of very bad luck and not the best maintenance. -ed

16. “2000 Audi A4 4.2 Swap 5 Speed Manual. Snapped Timing Belt. 40 Bent Valves.” -John M

Yes, but were they Noodled? -ed

17. “Can I just say Digifant happened? 91 Corrado G60 with the stock PG 8v… When I put the car back together I found that the ECU, O2 sensor, and blue water temp sensor were all bad. Made the trip down, car didn’t make it home…” -Justin T

Digifant is a type of VW fuel injection system that is fairly reliant on sensors and related electronics to work correctly.  It’s important to test or replace most of these every once in awhile, or the rudimentary computer controlled system will not function correctly and bad bad things happen. -ed

18. ’97 Saab NG900 Turbo. Original throwout bearing finally seized @ 98k under a Nordic tdo4 stage 4 tune. *Added bonus* selector fork broke in 3rd gear but still made it home by ignoring all traffic rules and basic human decency. -Patrick B

Working throwout bearings and human decency both highly recommended -ed

19. “That’s an inner driver from my 75 Saab 99 hillclimb car, had been running it the whole season with apparently too short an axle on the driver side, only failed catastrophically at the Fall Weatherly hillclimb. First failure was on Saturday, fixed it overnight only to fail again on the same exact turn the next morning, needless to say I’ve got the proper axle in it now.” -Paul H

As part of the PA Saab Maab, we here at eEuro have become very familiar with the antics of Paul and the rest, including watching some pretty tremendous Saab related failures.  We actually suffered a similar fate at Summit Point, a bad time was had by all.  Live and learn. -ed

20. “This clutch was in my E36. It exploded so spectacularly I mounted it in a shadow box. It failed on track at New Jersey Motorsports Park.” – Mike C

We remember when this happened Mike, and are super glad we could help you get into a higher rated UUC Kevlar® clutch for all your track related HPDE activity.  Sidenote: Exploded car parts always make good art and furniture. -ed

21. “2003 Volvo S60, swapped out the cooling fan, made sure the new one worked, then lucky parked the car in the driveway (it was a freezing December night and thought about leaving it in the garage). About an hour later got a knock on my door (around 10:30PM) opened it to a lady telling me my car was on fire….not totally sure what caused it. Possibly a bad relay? Or fan motor?” -Danny P

The term ‘Muy Caliente’ came to mind, but maybe since it’s a Swedish car we should use ‘väldigt het’ instead.  Either way, the important thing is that no one was hurt.  Hard to think that an electrical short can spark such a fire, multiple things must have gone wrong to cause this.  Judging by the orientation of the engine, this fire was hot enough to melt the engine mounts and maybe even the subframe bushings as well! -ed

22. “This started off as a slight tick from the balance shaft chain in my old ’03 9-3 Arc. Eventually the tensioner wore through and launched the chain into the case. The biggest chunk I found of the piston was about the size of a quarter.” -Ryan L

Scroll up to #7 see the broken balance shaft chain tensioner in question, we cannot stress enough how important it is to do the maintenance on your 03+ 2.0t Saab ecotec engine, you don’t want this happening to you!  Hear a tick or a rattle, and you know what you’re in for when you let it go too long! -ed

23. “Dead catalytic converter. Chunk off of the piston turned into a ball o’ fire, went through the turbine, blew out the cat and hit a riced out Civic riding my ***. Apparently oil starvation was the cause.” James N

This is why we have dash cams, James. -ed

24. “My M54B25 intake camshaft from my e39 sportSWAGgon. This was caused by forgetting to refill with the slippery good stuff and continuing to drive anyway!” -Jake D

Always double tap that dipstick after an oil change. Most of us have probably thought “did I…..?” when getting ready to turn the key after a fresh one.  On the bright side now you have 3 camshafts, and more is always better right? -ed

25. “Went to shift into 4th and the clutch pedal never went up. The tach read well past 8. Sheared the pins in the pressure plate. Put three holes in the trans. Shear the key in the timing gear. All 20 valves hit. Sheared the flywheel off the crank. Also sheared the crank trigger wheel off the crank.” – Dylan B

This cacophony of carnage must have been something to experience.  Your engine can always cut fuel or ignition to provide a rev limit, but there’s nothing it can do if whatever is forcing the revs up is purely mechanical.  Good luck in getting this back up and running Dylan. -ed

With almost 70 entries, there’s more carnage to come next week in Competition of Bad 2017 Part 2.  Keep an eye out for that and remember to keep your oil checked, replace bad parts, and if you hear something, buy something!