ORIGINAL: ugly duck

Damn, does that sound familiar. Happened to me a couple weeks ago, except it was a curb and not a pool, and the starter handle held open the throttle instead of the arm coming off. Mine happened because I hit a jump badly and the impact shut off the truck radio - a Failsafe wouldn't have helped, because my buddy had the same thing happen to him on his failsafe-equpped Jammin just after it happened to me. He didn't wreck his, though.

I tend to believe that the engine got shifted in the impact, and that stripped the spur gear - not the extreme RPMs. The muffler on mine was still the plastic one and it never got crushed, but it popped right off the exhaust manifold. I don't believe that it would suck it closed either, by the way - the flat sided plastic fuel tank would have collapsed first. By the way - after my big impact, my fuel tank started leaking... check yours. Also check your servo saver because after my hit, the SS has a big gouge in one part and the steering never returns to the same place even though the servo does. THIS is a part that could be made in aluminium, but it's not!

I bought a new connecting rod just in case, but I haven't installed it yet. I've run it for an hour or so since and some of the time at max RPMs for seconds on end, but aluminium (the connecting rod) will eventually stress out and break, so a new con rod is good insurance for an engine you think over-revved. Hell, it's good insurance for an older engine! There's a reason why connecting rods in F.S. street engines are steel and not aluminium - so long as steel isn't overstressed, it'll spring back into position almost indefinitely. Aluminium WILL eventually break, given enough cycles or stress.