This shot shows my son, Marshall, shortly after we extracted the engine from the car. I guess this is going to be a father/son project.

The extraction of the engine went well. It came out fairly easily. Notice that I removed the rear bumper from the car to make it easier. Our driveway slopes down toward the street, so I didn't want to raise the back of the car too high.

Note the 'safety line' behind him!!!

"Yo Quero Engine!!"

My faithful dog, Margarita (Rita for short) inspects the empty engine compartment.

After I removed the heat exchangers, I was able to have a first look at the damage within.

What you see in the number 4 exhaust port is a bent air injector with the head of the exhaust valve jammed in above it.

Hmmm, that's not how it's s'posed to look!

Once the heads were removed, the damage can really be scoped out.

Lookie here -- no piston. Now, where'd that darn piston go?

Oh, and there's that pesky exhaust valve head again.

Looks like the cylinder needs to be honed a bit, huh?

Here's a scary sight. At least the carbon's been 'polished' off!!

If that darned exhaust valve woulda just stayed where it belonged!!!

The weirdest thing about the whole ordeal -- not a single broken head stud.

Needless to say, if you look at the other side of the head, the valve stem was pushed way up and is welded into the valve guide. The head (and the cylinder are both badly cracked in places). Looks like it's time for the scrap heap for these guys.

When I think about how smoothly this car used to run and what it's like now.... Elvis Costello once wrote The Other Side of Summer -- I may know what he was thinking now.

Here's a weird sight. This is the other side of the engine away from the damage. All of the intake rocker arms are broken in half!!

I dunno what happened here -- but I think it kept the car from running and thus saving me a lot of money. If I would've tried to 'drive on five.' I'm sure the damage would've multiplied.

Maybe some shrapnel from the piston came thru the oil return tubes and jammed up the valve train. Any ideas??

Much more of the piston came out as the engine was disassembled. Pretty nasty. Might make a pretty necklace....

Ah ha!! There's that darn piston!!!

Or, at least parts of it. These came out of the exhaust system when I took it off.

And, below is the view through the oil strainer hole. I guess the rest of the piston is still inside the engine -- most of it anyway!

Notice the leftmost connecting rod on the crank. This is number 4 and it's bent slightly; plus it's beat to hell! Pay no attention to the oil can!

Here's a close up of the bent rod. Plus, you can see the debris from the piston all over.