Be glad your XT isn't prone to problems like this!..



That's what remains of a piston from an engine that destroyed itself while running turbo boost..

Lots of things destroy engines. I've holed pistons on 2-strokes due to knocking/excessive lean. A complete disintegration such as in the picture, could be several causes.

Many high performance cars run 10-15 psi turbo boost as OEM. Often the stock pistons, rods, bearings will support 20 psi if the car can be re-programmed to allow it (and on E85 or 100 octane). I run about 28 psi peak in my car, but that's with aftermarket pistons and rods...stock bearings though.

Alexd

Nice. I've heard of boost controllers failing and causing kabooms, but I don't recall seeing the aftermath being such small pieces. Usually there's some big chunks. What sort of engine was this?

No idea what sort of engine produced the kind of destruction we see in that particular photo. But there's one I do know about.

This engine wasn't turboed, but a souped up '58 BSA 650cc Twin 'Spitfire Scrambler' that I bought in '59 from Buddy Stubbs, the BSA dealer in Phoenix.



Buddy had installed a race cam, ported and polished the engine, etc., and rode it for about a year as his personal bike. When it was offered for sale I jumped at the chance. Blazing fast and incredibly fun to ride, I spent months enjoying that hot-rod bike.

One evening, riding past a drive-in theater in Phoenix, a guy coming the other direction made an abrupt left turn directly in front of me and I T-boned his vehicle at about 40 MPH. Never saw him make that turn. I was reading "James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor in GIANT" on the movie marquee one second - only to wake up in an ambulance on the way to the hospital the next.

I survived. The bike didn't.

The impact jammed the throttle full open and the engine blew itself apart, creating a tangle of ruined metal that I fished this broken piece of a piston out some days later.



Like I said, not a turbo powered disaster, but a radically blown engine nevertheless..