A Mitsubishi Engine So Destroyed. It Launched a Rod Through the Block

Buying a used car at auction is always a gamble. Sometimes you get a reliable daily driver. Other times, you get a Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart with a mystery engine that grenades itself in spectacular fashion. That’s exactly what happened to mechanic Eric, host of the I Do Cars teardown channel on YouTube.

He picked up a 2010 Lancer Ralliart from Copart, hoping for a decent project. Instead, he discovered the 4B11T engine under the hood didn’t belong there, it was swapped in from a 2008 Lancer Evolution. Copart confirmed the engine started and idled fine when it arrived, but by the time Eric got his hands on it, something had gone very, very wrong.

0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. When he rotates the engine, the camera reveals two gaping holes in the block. The Ralliart originally made 237 horsepower, but the Evolution-sourced engine was rated at 291. “It was a pretty cool car in its own right,” Eric says. As he disassembles the mill, he finds the oil pan filled with metal debris, more than Indiana Jones ever uncovered.

” The main bearings show damage, and Eric blames either hydrolock or a fuel delivery issue, though he found no water or rust.

“Or maybe this car was modified,” Eric says with a hint of sarcasm. ” The two center rods failed, one worse than the other. Once a rod starts to bend, it keeps bending until the piston hits the crankshaft counterweight. “It probably ripped the wrist pin out, and then the bent rod came down and annihilated everything in its path,” Eric explains.

The wrist pin eventually escaped through the engine block wall. Despite the carnage, Eric isn’t bitter. He salvaged the cylinder head and plans to resell it to recover some costs. And for entertaining his YouTube audience? The Lancer was a perfect purchase. “I wanted to have some carnage on the channel, and a car I bought at the auctions filled that void,” he says.