GM Vortec V6...gloves standard,blown motor inevitable (little Alfa content)

[Milanogold@domain.elided]

Greetings Alfisti!
     Thought you might find this interesting........
    I have 92 cars in my rental fleet, a smattering of Chevrolet, Ponitac, 
Ford,and Dodge models.I Also rent trucks, primarily 1998 Chevy full size 
pickups with the 4,3 Vortec V6 motor and auto transmission.I had a customer 
last week call and mention that the truck he was in (98 model, 34k miles)had 
just blown a motor.I got him another truck, had the blown up truck towed to 
the dealer and asked them to diagnose the problem.(All of our vehicles are 
new,therefore covered under warranty.Getting the dealers to service the 
vehicles is another long and unhappy story, however).
         I got a call from the dealer 2 days after the incident,the service 
manager said the motor was definitely blown up, it would be covered under 
warranty and could I come down to the dealership to look at something.I went 
to the dealer, where the service manager showed me what caused the motor to 
blow up.
      He showed me the oil pan, which contained chewed up rocker arms,bits of 
the block itself,and bits of the connecting rod that punched a 4 inch wide 
hole on the left front side of the oil pan.They had taken off the intake as 
well, showing me the GLOVE that was left  laying in the intake when the motor 
was assembled at the factory.The remaining pieces of the glove were laying on 
the right side of the intake,the intake was assembled with 2 of the fingers 
trapped under the head gasket.Wonder what the engine assembler was thinking 
when he built this motor.
and wonder if he even missed his glove.. 
    Apparently the glove (which was pretty well chewed up;it looked like a 
white cloth glove with the blue non-slip rubber applied to the finger areas) 
had been slowly been disintegrating, and at 34k miles had come apart enough 
for the pieces to collect around the oil pump and essentially grind it to a 
halt.After this, the motor puked its guts out...literally.The truck now has a 
new (hopefully glove free) motor;GM spent 3900.00 for the motor and labor, 
and the "gloved motor" was shipped up to the GM engine tech center in 
Michigan,according to the service manager "for further review".Wonder if 
they're reviewing whether or not work gloves can be used as gaskets,thereby 
saving them millions and putting Fel Pro out of business..............  
Terry Akins
Alexandria,VA
1987 Milano Gold (Alfie,glove free)
1979 Alfetta Velocissima (Lazarus,ditto......)

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1183
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