How do you throw a rod? Seriously.

[KyleTaylor]

I have replaced one m42 and seen three other m42s with a rod through the block.  

How common is this?? I have never seen an m20 with more than a blown head gasket.  Not saying I would prefer an m20 at all.

My m42 has about 200k miles and is as noisy as a model T.  Should I be worried at all?  I rarely get above 4k unless I have to.

[kowalski]

any motor that is abused wont last long. if your take care of it, it will. Mine has over 300K on it, and it still runs great.

my last motor, i cracked the oil pan several times, and so had other people i had lent the car to... they drove it without oil for about a block... thus, it spun a bearing and threw a rod.

your m42 sounds like it needs a tensioner.

[KyleTaylor]

your m42 sounds like it needs a tensioner.

I believe you are correct and I will be ordering one tomorrow.

The rod throwing thing is more a question of will it throw just by driving high into the revs, or is it more a catastrophic failure like broken oil pan and loss of oil that will cause it?

[halcron]

I think the source of the problem is poor maintenance. M42 are well engineered in terms of reliability and if well taken care of, it can run for over 200K miles w/o any issues.

For me, I always use high quality synthetic oil for the engine check the engine for unusual noise. Once, I did not bolt the oil filter housing properly resulting in the engine running almost dry! There is burnt smell and smoke coming out from the bonnet! But the engine still runs well today w/o any problem other than annoying ticking noise from the worn tappets (planing for a rebuild soon so don't bother replacing them).

[kowalski]

I believe you are correct and I will be ordering one tomorrow.

The rod throwing thing is more a question of will it throw just by driving high into the revs, or is it more a catastrophic failure like broken oil pan and loss of oil that will cause it?

it likes r3vs, mostly the later end of your statement. that or dragging out oil changes.

[KyleTaylor]

it likes r3vs, mostly the later end of your statement. that or dragging out oil changes.

I like your reference to the other e30 site.  

I am thinking about breaking mine on purpose... I replaced the tensioner today and it is still super loud below 3200 rpms... maybe i have an oiling issue.  The light only come on right at start up when I have not driven in a couple days.

Is the oil sender easy to replace with a gauge for a reading of the actual pressure?