Pete here. Y'all are welcome. My guess is that this was a NASA experiment for the new shuttle engine program. As we can see... It failed the first test.

This engine gives new meaning to "internal combustion"

I vote for towed in gear. To have parts light blue / green / grey, those things easily got to ~600°f+. Frankly it's amazing.

Wow, a valve making it's way into the oil pan is extremely impressive. I literally made it's way to the opposite side of the journey. Quite a journey for a top end component.

Apparently they're called "boxer" engines cause the rods are trying to "punch" their way out of the block.

Hey hey hey Mr. I read all comments, I check my oil every other time I buy gas. I check the oil every time I cut the grass. I look at the oil window every time I ride my motorcycle. I can’t afford new engines!

Similar story regarding Subaru engines. When I first started out at my shop, we had a costumer come in with a Subaru Forester saying he needs an axle. As a matter of fact, he bought an axle from the nearest AutoZone. I'm on the opposite side of the building doing tires, while one of my coworkers jumps into the car to bring it into the shop. As he cranked the car over and drove it into the work bay, I can immediately tell what was wrong with the car. Literally all of us stopped what we were doing and went over to the car. My boss opens the hood and checks the dipstick, NO MOTOR OIL. It was completely bone dry. All of us were astonished the guy drove it to the shop in its condition. We went over to the costumer and told him what was actually wrong. His response, and I'll never forget it, he said "My friends told me I don't need oil". My boss and I were almost facepalming ourselves. Now remember, I was a rookie just starting out. I stopped him and said to him "Think of your engine as your heart and the oil is your blood. What would happen if there were no blood flowing through to your heart?" And he said, "You'll die." Obviously, everyone knows what my response is after that. We put 5 quarts of oil in the car, which was kind of over optimistic. Fortunately, the guy lived up the road from the shop, and my boss said he would be amazed if the car even made it to the driveway. UNFORTUNATELY, the engine literally ceased about halfway in between the shop and his house, and his house isn't even 45 seconds from the shop, by car. The engine was that far gone. We helped tow the car back up to his house and the rest is history. Moral of the story to those who own a Subaru, please check your engine oil level periodically.

The fact that it spun long enough to literally smooth blend everything inside, achieved the kind of carnage one submits to the Guinness book of records.

Eric I love how you took the water pump chucking to a whole new level. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

When you hear the rod knocking, you have to drive really fast so you get home before it lets go. Or at least be closer to save on the towing charge.

For those wondering, for the oil pump to start to turn blue if would have had to reach at least 500-550 degree Fahrenheit which is around 2 to 3 times normal operating temperature. This car has to have been flat towed in gear because it explains how the crankshaft would have be able to keep turning and destroy all the rods and lack of oil flow unless some wizard was magically able to yeet them all off simultaneously with racing with low oil or coolant

The timing system on this engine seems very well designed, simple and reliable. Love that there are none of those stupid plastic timing chain/belt tensioners. Robust metal tensioners with large bearings rule.

I just gave a round of applause to the person that blew up this motor. Spectacular.

Two options. 1) ran with little or no oil for awhile. 2) If it was stick shift was it flat toward behind an RV and they left in gear . If so rpm could have exceeded 12 to 15 thousand rpm.

A massive thanks to Pete for this core. That is the most amazing destruction. All rods disconnected. Never seen that. Wow

Another vote for being towed in gear. FWIW, used to work with a couple of race teams. Turning small block Chevy 350s to 7,000. Have seen a number of "blow ups" but never anything remotely close to this. Amazing!

The effort expended on that one bolt to get the block all the way apart is what earned the like and comment today :)

Alright. The waterpump skit. Take your Oscar and get out.

This autopsy was one of the best yet. Like everyone else how do you get an engine to destroy itself so completely? One would think it would have stopped long before every single moving part was totally destroyed. I will check the oil daily on my Forester from now on.

Thanks Pete! The big problem with flat-piston engines... as I see it... is... when a vertical piston engine blows the parts all fall to the bottom... in a flat engine they can't fall down very far because of the windage tray, and the opposed direction means the overwhelming majority of the force is sideways, so when they let go the parts fly *into each other*. So a high RPM failure basically means one thrown rod scatters bits into another rod... into another rod... you get the idea... It looks to me like a catastrophic oiling failure. Lost oil pressure, spun bearings, lots of flying pieces, kablamo.

I fully suspect improper towing procedure was at play here. You don't need any good cylinders to spin the engine if the car is being moved under another vehicle's power while left in gear.

That crankshaft is COOKED. Easily this is the max carnage I've ever seen in an engine that didn't blow completely apart.

I've never seen such complete destruction, it just goes to show that if you believe in yourself you can accomplish anything. Whoever blew up that engine deserves an award.

Worked on Subarus since the EA79 block. If one ran rough, and it wasn't obvious why, we'd try starting the engine on one cylinder to see which cylinder didn't start to find the bad one. There is no small amount of voodoo involved in making these engines run.

I saw a video once where they towed a car with a manual transmission in first gear to see how fast the engine would spin. It scattered parts everywhere. I think someone duplicated that with this engine.

My man literally just yeeted a water pump from Missouri all the way to Pennsylvania. I think that’s the most impressive thing here. EDIT: Thanks Pete

I can barely begin to imagine how spectacular that must have sounded when it decided to shred itself in to oblivion! At least it had a decent timing belt! Great video, cheers!

Worked for a Subaru dealership for years. We would regularly see engines with holes under the alternator because the jackwagon owner hadn't changed the oil or even topped it off for 25k or more.

Subaru noticed that the competition was using either cylinder deactivation or engine start/stop. So they decided to multiply the two together for total deactivation.

Towing it behind an RV in first gear would have "run" it long enough to do that!

Friend of mine towed his 2009 Subaru Forester with manual trans behind his motorhome,He forgot and left it in gear after a hitch up,a few miles down the road the engine “Grenaded” I suspect this may be what happened to this one! l enjoy your teardowns very much

Thanks Eric! Thanks Pete! That was stunning! Just shows that good things do come in small packages, and this tear down was very, very good! Eric the Tenacious!💪💪💪

I love this channel and the endless supply of parts being thrown across the shop😂

If we get an "I'm speechless" in the title.....ya know we're gonna get some carnage. Thanks Pete!

oh man. I love your reaction at 15:46 I was laughing my ass off. You were laughing your ass off. we were both laughing so hard at the same thing. Then your "complete salad kit" broke me. I love your content dude. It's the freaking best. also 18:46 the look you gave the camera when you realized what you said. much love dude!

Best One Ever, I must admit, I'm addicted to Eric's teardowns. Love this one for sure. Thanks Pete!

33:52 Accurate recreation of how that engine sounded right before it ended up in your shop

I still miss the days when I used to do this kind of teardown once in a while. Being able to watch you do it, with commentary that I'd have used myself, brings back so many memories.

It never ceases to amaze me how bad these engines destroy themselves. Even when used lightly, these engines are just so delicate and have a tendency to be under designed for safety. I love the flat 4 and flat 6 but wow!

Holy internal explosion! The problem has only gotten worse with extended oil change times. Subaru is one of the few manufacturers Ive seen that has actually reduced the oil change mileage on their latest engines, the FB engine family use to be 7500 mile changes, its now down to 6000 miles. I change mine every 5000 and check it as often as I can.

Everything about that engine is a work of art. The chared crank, the piston with 50 valve marks in it. Beautiful

‘Knock - knock!’. Hi. Let me introduce myself. I’m Rod.

10:20 - I laughed so hard at this! This is what makes your channel so amazing. It's very informative on the tear downs, but not a dry moment. You really keep the viewer engaged from start to finish.

That was impressive. The only thing I can think of is that it was really low on oil and developed a knock. then revved past it's maximum RPM until things started flying apart. Keep up the good work.

Loved the little skit with the water pump, and as the owner of a high mileage 02 subaru, I think I'm gonna do the oil change a little bit earlier. As for my theory on what caused this, it was towed while in gear. I remember seeing an article online years ago where a family towed their car (I think it was a cooper mini or somesuch smaller car) and left it in first, then got it up to highway speeds. The inside of the engine got turned to gravel and according to the comments the shaft RPM in that poor bastard of an engine would have been pushing well north of 20k RPM. Leaving it gear (probably first or second) would have sent the engine above the redline once the tow got up to speed and from there the friction and sheer forces involved would have done the rest. Wonder how brutalized the transmission and transfer case was on this vehicle.

I've got two theories: either someone had it running parked in their driveway and put a brick on the gas pedal before pulling the oil pan plug, or it got towed in gear for about half a million miles. There's no way in Hades it was actually being driven. This thing is past nuggets, we've got a bowl of Boxer Engine Crunch!

Way to go, Pete. That was truly impressive. The only scenarios I can think of to generate this level of destruction are: 1. Improper towing. 2. A backwards "upshift." (3rd-to-2nd, 4th-to-3rd or similar.) 3. A gear-skipping downshift at the top of the rev range. (5th-to-2nd or 4th-to-1st.) High-RPM on-throttle shenanigans would not, I think, be able to wreak such complete annihilation. A piston or rod or valve or whatever would fail and the engine would quit, limiting the damage to however much could be done with just the engine's remaining inertia. _This_ engine was turned into a self-shredding machine, forcibly spun until ding nigh _everything_ inside it was pulverized. That's my opinion, anyway, although I'm no expert.

Thanks. Someone asked why I watch you tear down so many engines. I don't know. But I enjoy it. Thank you.

Probably towed behind an RV and left in (a lower) gear. That would keep it turning through the carnage. I'd love to be able to give the two "good" pistons/rods to a couple guys at work who are Subaru fanatics. I'll just send them the link to this video. It will break their minds and hearts.

The water pump was hysterical. That had to be towed behind a pusher camper, I seen a jeep with the transmission , transfer case AND engine just scrap because they forgot to put it in neutral.

While removing the oil pan: “I didn’t drain the oil…. This may not pan out for me….” Remarkable couple of puns….

As far as the color changing, I know for steel like high carbon steel 400F will take it to a nice straw/golden color. I think 600F around that temp for it to be blued and it would stay that color for a while until it starts to go red hot. Its when that stuff cools down when it turns a dull greyish from a shiny polished state it would have started. That cover being aluminum and it being fused means that the Aluminum got hot enough to get soft to fuse but not melt and aluminum (given alloys) starts to melt around 1200F. So between 600F to 1000F

Perhaps it was towed in gear? That is crazy, because it seems like it kept running for a LONG time after it should not have..

Someone hitting the rev limiter just after their 60,000 mile oil change interval. (And forgetting to add the clean oil). That was some professional level destruction! I had a crankshaft break at 70 mph in a FIAT once and the results were bad but not even close to this carnage. I'm impressed! Truly!

This was a fairly recently divorced woman driving on the expressway at night. Her ex-husband had been maintaining their vehicles and had probably been adding a quart of oil every thousand miles or so never mentioning it to her during the final days before the decree was signed. She had a lead foot and was probably cruising 85 or so in the rain. When the dash started to light up, she got scared but didn’t want to stop on the highway in the rain. When it started to get real tight and began slowing down, she pushed harder on the accelerator until it downshifted, then downshifted again. Now she’s really getting worried because it doesn’t sound right either but she’s down to 45 mph at 5500 rpms. She turns up the radio to get rid of the ugly noises. Slower, slower, but she can see the exit up ahead. One more little push on the pedal and one more downshift into first at 6000 rpms. RIP little boxer.

Wow! I have never seen anything so destroyed! Unbelievable. Best teardown yet. 👍

I think you have a new carnage champion I can't imagine the noises coming from this before it finally quit.

I would like to have seen the crankshaft put on some v-blocks and rotated. I would be shocked in that crank wasn't twisted to some degree

Great tear down. Thanks Pete.

The reason it didn't want to split the block was that the crank had welded itself to the halves. I can't see any way this happened other than it let go at high speed in a manual transmission vehicle and the driver didn't take it out of gear, and the momentum mulched the engine. That's impressive damage! Thanks for taking it ALL the way apart. Also, I love that you finally clarified to the viewing public what I already knew about the ongoing water pump joke.

Another fun thing with these engines: all the chem-welded bolts in the block from dissimilar-metal reaction. 18:30 Gotta dig the "Parts Master" oil filter... 🤣

The pan pun had me laughing way harder than I should have been but honestly I think the engine was already on its way out so they just went full send and some how Powered through all the noise and pain until it completely stopped

Thanks Pete! I'm just impressed with how long this engine must have kept turning after it started falling apart. Truly amazed...

You can tell that engine is blown because of the way it is.

Love the water pump bit. 🤓

This looks like it let go on the highway at the top of 5th gear and they let it coast all the way to a stop while in gear, absolutely spectacular amount of carnage.

This entire video is why I love watching your content!! Loved the bit when you threw the water pump to your buddies in PA! And FOUR broken rods, impressive!!! I can't believe you ruined the block just to take it apart, what a waste! 😂😂

Thanks Pete and Eric for sharing!! One of the best ones!

No matter how many times I see this style of engine I'm always amazed by its design. Strange the way it's designed.

Send it to the Flex-Seal® guy and let him prove how good his stuff is.

Simply and catastrophically, OUTSTANDING! Makes me wonder that is what the 2.5 in my daughter's '07 probably looked like when she first heard clanking and kept trying to run it....

The valve cover died as the engine lived.....recklessly! Thanks for another great teardown video!

100%, that thing was flat towed in gear.

Imagine what it sounded like when the entire long block came apart. This ran out of oil at high rpm, and it may well have been towing (or trying to tow) something at the time

It's obvious that you like what you do, and I enjoyed watching your enthusiasm.

We had a 2 liter Impreza Plus automatic (atmospheric, 116 HP) from 2003 - 2012. When we bought it it was 6 years old and had 65000 km on it. When we sold it it had run 210000 km. Apart from the usual wear and tear we had absolutely no issues with it. The car was very comfortable and reasonably quiet. The only thing we had against it, was its thirst. We live in the Netherlands. Subaru is regarded here as one of the very durable brands, alongside Toyota, Honda and Mazda. Probably because our Subarus are all built in Japan. My son-in-law and a brother-in-law also drove Subarus, without any problems. We are aware of issues with them in the States. Especially the 2.5 liter is vulnarable, because a main oil pipe runs low under the block, and gives oil problems, lubricationwise as well as cooling. I suspect that the car this engine belonged to has been towed in gears..

The Water pump cameo was Fucking gold.

That engine had Autobot chow in the oil pan. Looks like this engine was going light speed when it blew. Thanks Pete for this mystery engine.

Definitely, one of your very best videos. Thanks, TED.

Like I said before...I love the sound of a bolt cracking loose. Really liked the cylinder "readjustment" to free that bolt. I was wondering what kind of noise this made when it blew up? Did the driver just lay on the gas until it blew up, someone racing it, fleeing from a police chase? All the above? Be interesting to get the back story on this one.

Since we are going with baseball terms, it batted 1.000. It was knocking them down all over the place. It finished the season leaving nothing else on the field. On a side note, remember when they did "Cash for clunkers"? I wonder if someone has one of the engines they poured the "mixture" into that they would donate so we can see what it did to them.

The water pump toss was awesome 😂

I did maintenance on cnc machine tools and loved my blue pry bars, you are so entertaining

I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens.

WRX owners who are hard on their engines either have lots of cash for rebuilds/new motors or get really good at doing the work themselves.

Video Thumbnail: "How do you blow up a Subaru engine?" Just drive it I think. 'Benny' on another KZfaq channel said it was 47 out of 48 that he knew of. That ratio matches my coworkers, nearly 100% engine failure, and then the final one went making it 3/3. Something went wrong at the factory a few years ago...

Guy brought me a 5.7, wants rebuilt. Went to bolt it to my engine stand and the bell housing mounting area on back shattered under its own weight and it fell on the floor. Fkn hillarious, told him no chance in hell, get another from salvage yard that's solid and I'll build it, I got OHVs to fix.

Thanks & extra thanks to Pete!! Especially hoped for & liked the oil pump view! They ignore the noise, hoping it will go away or at least get them where they're going, and since it is going slower they just push the go pedal down even more until the job/destruction is complete. Yeah, I'm wrong, towed in gear!

That has to be your best tear-down yet! Thanks Pete!

Your most cautious and delicate tear down yet!

This was the perfect way to start my work week off. You are hysterical.

I just love the "the better the part, the further away the throw" scheme. XD The water pump was pure comedy! Thanks!

I'm almost convinced this is my buddy's old motor! We blew it up in early 2019. It randomly started an extremely violent rodknock and one day I jump started it and every so slightly gave it throttle to keep it iding and it blew up. It was a beige Forester and we are fairly close to Mertztown, PA. If it's truly my buddy old motor I have videos of it running

Possibly got flat towed in gear to achieve TOTAL DESTRUCTION

You're impact is back !! Welcome back buddy

As always the teardown was awesome. Best part was the waterpump segment!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Pete and Eric rock! Thanks for entertaining me while I had my popcorn and rum & coke...that was a blast, possibly literally...

My guess is that this Forester was a 5 speed manual and they money shifted it from 5th to 1st somehow while also running it low on oil. That's the only thing I can think of.

I like your ambush method at 10:53. That dipstick tube didn't see that coming

THAT was truly impressive. Both the level of carnage... And the fact that you got it fully torn down.