Mercury Marauder 4.6L Teardown. HOW DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN? Worst Blown Engine Yet? 

A few things about this teardown. Several viewers mentioned running upside down, I do think that's a valid theory! I also think someone was in there trying to get the crank to turn so they could remove the torque converter bolts, however it was clear their efforts were.... futile. The missing main cap bolts also make me think this. The stubborn/tight/rounded off main side bolts for the main caps were too tight to use an extractor, and likely would've broken the head off the bolt had I tried to weld to them. We aren't supposed to use open flames in the shop per insurance rules, so I try to keep that type of work off camera (It never happens, promise!) Overall, this has to be the wildest failure I've seen to date considering the relatively unaffected cylinder heads. Thanks for the comments!

I owned a Marauder for a few years, had to sell it to take care of my mother in law who was battling cancer. Sure miss them both.

The fact that both of the cylinder heads survived that insane grenading action enough to be serviceable is beyond amazing.

I don't know how many times I've imagined taking a hammer to a frustrating bolt. That must've felt good! Lol. Another great teardown choice!

The 32 valve double overhead cam 4.6 Intech V8 is probably one of the best engines Ford ever produced. I had worn in my 98 continental and it was trouble free. It is a great engine.

Never ceases to amaze me how big the modular engines are versus their cubic inch capacity with the huge heads and cam chains.

Best teardown ever. I can't imagine the noise this made and for how long to cause that much carnage. Amazing.

Expected a teardown, watched a beatdown! That poor engine thought the worst that would happen was its catastrophic failure. What it couldnt have foreseen was its corpse being defiled for "forensic investigation"! Thank you Sir for sharing this adventure with us!

Looks like the inside of a Chevy V6 my friends and I blew up when we shot unregulated nitrous into the filter box while the engine was banging off the limiter. I believe that for approximately 0.03 seconds that 4.3 made north of 5000 horses and then promptly grenaded. The blown out rod big ends especially looked like the ones in that engine. Partially melted and fractured metal.

Whats more likely is that the engine seized. Someone pulled the pan off and torched and knocked the pistons up in order to free the crank so they could spin the engine inorder to get the torque converter bolts out. I used to do this a lot. I worked for a company and did all the replacements for years and atleast 250 engines I have replaced, I had to go through those lengths in order to get the crank to spin. In a shop, you're not paid to pull it all apart so a lot of guys will rip through the engine as quickly as possible. It's considered junk to them anyways.

Those 4.6 4V units are strong, powerful and sweet sounding. This poor thing must have been so neglected.

This has been my favorite teardown so far, all pistons at TDC, zero rods connected and smashing the absolute hell out of a block in order to solve seized main bolts, broken hammers is also a plus

I can honestly say I don't think I've ever seen someone use a hammer on a teardown like that. Gotta say I'm jealous lmao

Oil starvation caused the rod bearings to seize on the crank journals, at high RPM, and the torque combined with the drag on the rod bearings caused the rods to twist right off. Oil failure plus high RPM. That's what it seems like happened to me. The main cap cross bolts were jammed due to displacement of the caps. Bet the bolts are bent. Check them, they will be. As for why there's no visible lubrication problem in the cams, I'd venture to guess that it had an oil passage obstruction that only affected the bottom end, where it matters the most especially at the redline.

27 year master certified tech, i agree with other comments stating missing bearing cap bolts and molten metal along with extreme discoloration on rod journal seem to indicate acetalene torch was used to cut rods free of crank. the oil filter being empty, as well as no oil in the housing suggests that oil starvation at high rpm locked the engine up by galding of the rod bearings. Smashing the block with a sledgehammer was so satisfying to watch!!!! I love teardowns and inspections-failure analysis because it is like a who done it mystery story. the debris, and scarring to the oil pump housing may be an indication of extreme neglect of maintenance and i would cut the filter open to see if it had ruptured the paper element. loved the video!!!

I had a 1997 Lincoln Mark VIII with the 4.6L SOHC engine and it was a fantastic drivetrain and vehicle all around! These motors are capable of going for a very long time and are actually quite efficient for what they are! Thanks for another great tear down!

That motor should read “Cleetus was here”.

My guess would be: Foot on the floor, hit something and tore the bottom of the oil pan out completely (hence no oil pan on the core). Bottom end went totally dry at seriously high revs and self-destructed so quickly that the top end hadn't had time to run out of oil yet.

That's incredible. Those engines are way overbuilt too so I'm impressed.

looks like a very well built engine as has been proven many times in use.

Some of that bottom end was taken apart in order to crank the engine to get the torque converter bolts out due to it being locked. Looks like a torch was used as well.

You know it's a good teardown when the sawzall comes out. I suspect someone in a pick-apart lot torched the bottom end of the engine trying to get it to spin around enough they could unbolt the torque converter.

I like the way this dude thinks. When all else fails, it's Hammertime. I figure the stress relief is worth more to me than whatever material item I just obliterated.

Love how he speeds up the boring bits and the remaining video is all the interesting bits

11 months later and I am still totally entertained by this teardown. I can't even wrap my head around how this could have happened. Just weird. Aliens?

Had me a marauder once. It was a good ride. Then I put a 3:73 in the rear end. Then it was a great ride.

Looks like a textbook case of Quick Lube syndrome, (forgot to refill the oil),followed by somebody's "mechanic" leaving a hammer in the oil pan while replacing the pan gasket, followed by a cold start with the throttle stuck wide open, while tumbling down a granite cliff face. I see this all the time...🤔

Years ago my wife had an 80-something Mazda 626 which killed all 4 of its cylinder walls. I maintained it carefully, always checked the oil, and it had less than 100K miles. For a weekend trip we were driving a few hours from home on the highway. Suddenly it lurched and died, and put out this ugly oily black smoke under the dash. She steered it to the side of the highway and turned it off. I thought that this would not be good. I opened the hood and nothing looked wrong, yet the radiator seemed really really hot. I figured it can't hurt to add some coolant. So I hiked to a gas station and returned with lots of water. When I put the water into the radiator, it sizzled. Again, not good, I thought. I was going to call for a tow. But I thought, what the hell, why not see if it starts? So I did and it started right up. I imagined that the oily black smoke never really happened and we drove it home. It seemed to drive fine, but the temperature gauge was all over the place, back and forth from too cool to too hot. Otherwise it seemed to run fine, and my wife drove it to and from work for a few more days as we waited for our appointment with the Mazda tech. Turned out that it was so bad that all the techs were very entertained. They said it was the most messed up they ever saw. All cylinder walls were horribly scored. They found the likely initial source of the mess: a crack had forced a passageway between the oil and the coolant. They were amazed that we were able to drive it for like 100 miles after it cracked. The block was not rebuildable. We put in another engine and kept it for many more years.

This is the very reason the 2 valve PI 4.6 is so reliable it has none of the problems of these complicated versions that Ford worked so hard and spent so much to make it a timebomb!

Years ago I towed a Crown Vic. Owner changed his oil and had a double ring filter he didn’t catch. So he drove about 150 miles slowly pushing oil out until it seized NM to AZ. We tried to fire it up at the shop but it was a very similar bottom end failure.

Taking "teardown" to a new level in this one

Still one of the best motors of the Ford family in the past 50yrs. Swapped an early Intek out of a Mark8 into my 98 Mustang back in the day. On a small dry shot that thing would take almost anything on the street back in the early 2K's. And it took the abuse time an time again. Had some nasty timing chain rattle on cold start but that was about it. Those blocks were made out of the same aluminum an at same Teksid factory out of Italy as the Ferraris an Lamborghinis. At least up until the late 90's early 2Ks anyway. The Ford Modular Motor family was awesome for the backyard weekend warriors to build and tinker with, before the later gen engines began to get more an more complex.

I’ve seen this in a John Deere tractor engine. They some how knocked a hole in the oil pan. The engine was at full rpm’s and under full load. By the time they see the oil pressure gauge it’s to late. The rods remove themselves from the crank.

When I was trying to get the heads off of my old 4.6L engine a few years ago, that dipstick setup drove me insane! They never come out easy.

I found your channel a few days ago and I am pleased and impressed. #1 takeaway: take care of your engine! That oil that they put in at the factory will last the life of the engine, just wait. #2: I would really like you to publish a glossary of the terms you use, for instance bearing rich oil, cylinder gravel, piston mc nuggets, etc. Keep it up and you will have a million subscribers.

The carnage is a testament to whoever engineered that engine. It kept running despite the absolutely horrific conditions it went through! Amazing!

The last part of the video reminds me of breaking apart my old cast iron bath tub with a 12lb sledge hammer. Stuff goes flying. Except I was on a rotten floor and the broken bathtub and I ended up in the crawlspace

I've seen this kind of Carnage before it was caused by the vehicle being upside down at high RPM

WOW!!! I hope you kept the crank...one helluva souvenir...and proof if anyone ever asked about the biggest failure ever. As for failure My guess is it was intensional...oil filter basicly dry and empty it appeaered and the wear on the oil pump gears. My guess is someone drained the oil probably dumped some on the topside and once it lit off kept it matted. THAT would be a video to see too...Im glad those heads survived. I've never seen that much purple and black on a crank before...wow...just wow!! Fantastic video!!

Eric, lol! That was amazing! A quick story- my step mother bought a 2008 Mirader after my dad passed. We all thought she was crazy. Traded in her minivan! Anyway it was totally black with all dark windows. Polished aluminum wheels. Everyone thought she was dealing drugs, at 75. Anyway that car was fast and smooth. Took it out without her a couple of times. Unbelievable the damage that engine had!!! PS: those dang dip sticks!!!

The only thing I can possibly think of is, they were driving at high speed, hit something in the road which put a vent hole in the pan, and just kept going until it came apart. Guess there was just enough oil left in the cam journals to save the heads. It honestly makes no sense though how the heads survived but there was that much damage down below.

Damn man you beat your WAP till you broke it, takes skill and persistence for that to happen

I had a Marauder for 10 years. It's cool to see the innards of the motor it had.

Always fighting the dip stick tube. My top two enemies as an auto tech are dip stick tubes and sway-bar links.😂 these are the two things that are almost impossible to remove and reuse ♻️

My dad has a 1999 Mercury Maruator Police Edition..he bought from a police auction in Tempe,Az.back in 2007..it now has 200,000 miles on it & doesn't burn oil or have leaks ..the only thing he has R&R is front struts & rear shocks..he has Motorkoted the engine..power steering..& runs injector cleaners religiously..👍 are

"Cooperative pistons!" They all want to be together. I really like the precision block adjustment with the sledge. Those bolts definitely deserved it. That all is shocking.

I'm just impressed at that level of damage, just really impressed. That's professional levels of chaos inside the bottom end. Just... Wow.

This is hands down the absolute BEST teardown so far. I laughed a lot.

I threw a rod, 20 miles from home in a very dangerous place so I kept going for a while. The rod had smashed threw the block and sump A mile later I decided the motor was then completely scrap and so just kept going at 10 mph. I expected it to seize but it kept going throwing one rod at a time until only one piston was fireing. With no oil or water it kept running at 3mph until I was half a mile from home when the last rod snapped. Amazing.

I have seen a 350 crank similar to that. But it had a bad main so we dumped all the coolant and oil. Then keep reving it trying to get it to blow enough to seize. It never did seize. It kept running. But did eventually stop

First half was a regular engine teardown, the other half was minutes of dude going medieval on an engine's ass.

Cleetus just posted a video where he destroyed the totally-not-turbo'd motor in his Marauder. Too much boost, and engine got real hot. Coincidence?

The wild part to me is the relatively light damage to the main journals yet the rod journals are beyond gone. Just wow.

If you've ever watch any of "friction welding" vids, you know the heat damage can happen in seconds. My guess is an instantaneous loss of oil while the engine was under load. All 8 rods at once! Wow. The bottom end welded up before the top end knew something was wrong. Best video!!

I have an Marauder and the 4.6 was freaking gutless so I put a 460BB torque monster tire shreader with a cam trick flow heads , Holley fuel injection , MSD ignition....the car is a blast to drive

A nut welded onto the top of wallered bolts & nuts usually works to get them loose. I think the heat during welding might help.

The towed in gear crowd are right I think. That's why all pistons are TDC, rods let go and have then been repeatedly bashed out of the way by the still spinning crank.

I, personally, like ALL of the engine teardowns. It's also why I subscribed and watch most all of your videos. Your personality and knowledge about engines keep me around.

I have never seen your videos before but it was awesome entertainment. Totally enjoyable, how do you stay so calm and composed. I know a few guys that would be swearing all the time. Thanks for sharing.

I have an 03 Marauder with 105K miles. What SHOULD Replacing a valve cover gasket run? Now to go back and finish your video. I wish I was that much mechanical...THUMBS UP!!100%

In all the teardown videos you've uploaded, I certainly don't think there's been such an extreme disparity between the condition of the cylinder heads and the bottom end of the engine... yikes.

These are rare engines! Glad to see you finally tear one down.

8 rods out of 8...that's impressive carnage!

In the 70s I knew some people who had keg parties out in the country. Beer, food, live music. Someone would drive a beater car, drain the oil and coolant. Then they would sell raffle tickets to guess how long the car would run at wide open throttle. I saw a 60s Chevy 327 run for over 3 minutes. That Merc engine looks similar. It was entertaining! Noise, sparks, smoke!

I have a 2004 Marauder, rebuilt engine 60k ago, lovely to see the innards of this amazing motor! Used to rebuild motors for fun back in the days. Thanks for this vid, very fun to watch. Loved the "convincing" it took!

That is a new experience for me. I have never seen anything like that either. I agree it looks like some gremlin with an oxy / acetylene torch was inside the engine melting the rods and crank. I wold love to know if the heads / cams ended up still being serviceable.

the only comparable carnage that ive seen are vehicles that have been towed behind RV's in gear.

That the heads weren't trashed is amazing.

The motor was probably over revved while descending a mountain grade in a low gear. Initially one rod cap failed, causing no oil pressure to the other rod bearings. Continuing down the grade the engine would be forced to keep turning at a high rpm, even while most of the rods had failed. Eventually the final rod would let go, while all pistons remained at TDC. That's the best theory I can think of. BTW, in my younger years we used to deliberately destroy old engines by running them at wot while draining the oil and/or coolant and keeping them running at wot until they seized. Then we'd tear them down to see what let go (sometimes with a bit of a wager to see who guessed right). Never did we end up with an engine with every rod letting go, never. That is why I'd bet something external kept that engine revving at max RPM even after the rods let go.

I had this rounded bolt problem once on a Hemi head. Sears used to sell six sided sockets incermented by the 32nd's. I bought on size smaller than the bolt head, drove it on with a BFH and popped them loose with a 3/4" breaker bar. It cracked the socket and with Sears lifetime warranty I got a new one.

Super look forward to your videos every week, keep up the great work; and as everyone has already said: The more carnage the better!!!

Love these videos, im a DIY'er so I am always learning. When the main cap bolts rounded off, I wondered why you kept trying. Once rounded, forever rounded. Invest in a set of turbo sockets. They remove rounded bolts. They go by another name, which I can't remember but the sockets have a spiral cut edge inside of them. Happy Holidays and thank you!!

Hard to imagine how that much damage happened. You did a great job taking it apart.

Best episode ever! Insane destruction. I can't fathom how this motor lasted long enough to do that kind of damage. I once killed a Mazda 3.0 V6 in my horrible Ford Escape, where it finally threw a rod and broke the block and pan, but it was nowhere near this level of burnt and melted. Clearly a pro at work!

This was something different. That's why you get viewers. Thank you. How can this engine even start up?

In my 40 + years of being a shop owner and a dealer Lincoln tech for two years first . I’ve never ever ever seen this not in race motors / boat diesel and gas motors , trucks or equipment . and Have no clue how it managed to keep running to break every rod and melt itself .WOO WOW .

I've never seen that much damage in an 8000 rpm racing engine, much less a factory engine. I would like to know the last minute of running time on that 4.6.

I`ve been looking forward to this, considering I have a Marauder in my driveway. Big 4.6L 4V fan, live and breath them, that short block took a BEATING, must have been ghetto boosted and blew up to all hell, never seen carnage like that, incredible.....

I don’t know why but I love watching you struggle with dip stick tubes 😝

As a 2003 Mach 1 owner it hurt to watch this, I will definitely make sure the oil is clean and at the correct level.

Best tear down ever seen in your channel tho!! That was an incomprehensible damage to that engine. Regards from Spain!

This appears to be an oil starvation (smoked bearings), mixed with mechanical over rev. The perfect storm 👌

The towed-in-gear scenario wouldn't work here due to all Marauders being automatics. The driveline won't spin the engine when towing, hence "bumpstarting" only works for stick shifts. My guess would be it was involved in a wreck where the vehicle went off-road, ripped the oil pan to hell, and then stopped with the throttle jammed wide open. Maybe the driver was incapacitated, with his foot on the gas and it just sat on the limiter.....

50 years wrenching. Rotax to John Deere ....This is the lifetime award winner. Best blown engine I have ever seen. All eight connecting rods.

Windsor blocks hold up just as good for most builds as the Teksid blocks, for 95% of builds either is fine. I’ve made upwards of 1400 flywheel HP on stock WAP blocks and they held up just fine. The biggest benefit to the manual Mach 1 over the 4 speed auto is the forged crank not so much the block. Regardless, It’s very likely lack of maintenance destroyed this engine because if you keep up on them you can beat this things and make gobs of power without hurting them. Improper state of tune is the second most common killer I’ve seen; if you have the tune right you can make 1000+ HP on these with bone stock long blocks. Opening up the ring gap is ideal, perhaps head studs, but as far as internals I’ve boosted the hell out of all sorts of 4.6 engines and they just take it. Hell I’ve made almost 800rwhp on a stock 2V shortblock!

this really doesn't look like a "totally stock Marauder" that just has a higher AC pressure level....

No malice in the combustion palace. Somebody likes the three stooges.👍😁

I love how you went full on caveman to get the crankshaft out.

What a mess. My best first guess would be just like you said, it was revved super high and those rods “became adjustable” one after another. And of course the pistons have no place to go but slam into the heads. Pretty darn amazing.

The 4.6L engine that cab drivers could not kill!!

The only thing I can think is this engine was in a manual transmission swapped Marauder; and this vehicle was pulled behind something while in gear to create this level of damage.

I'm leaning with the towed in gear theory on how the destruction was kept on the bottom end. Too bad there is no oil pan but likely it was destroyed when the rods escaped. RIP 4.6 and RIP Sledgehammer.

The running upside down theory sounds plausible to me. I originally thought it was a really really bad missed shift and overrev until I saw those connecting rods. (well what used to be connecting rods) That is without a doubt the most thoroughly trashed motor I have seen outside of a drag strip. What a pity, I love that motor, almost as much as the 427 SOHC from the 60's.

Probably the best 4.6 Ford engine. I'm surprised these didn't find a home in more Ford models.

i was not aware you can just beat a engine block apart with a sledge hammer, this video was taught me something

That is an amazing amount of carnage, maybe someone threw a 1000HP nitrous kit at it. Thanks for the great video once again!

This teardown gives me even more respect for the 4.6 platform. That engine held together for a LONG time to keep beating that bottom end like that. Somebody must have been running from the cops, and just kept it hammered until it stopped. Something broke in the bottom end, plugged up the oil feed to the bottom end only, and 2 or 3 minutes later...here you go.

Maybe it was towed while in a low gear? Engine reached unthinkable RPMs with little lube.

“Malice in the combustion palace” Pure gold.

Years ago, a French auto publication would oversee a complete teardown of an engine, say a Volvo after 200,000 miles. This was to show the wear and tear...and they displayed every significant part by hanging it around the garage walls. An arresting sight and you got an appreciation of the Otto cycle engine.