05/31/2026
Naturally we get a lot of blown up motors that come through the shop and on all of them I try to explain WHY the failure occured. Last thing anyone wants is to rebuild a motor, ignore the root cause of the failure, and then the freshly rebuilt motor blows up again.
This was an interesting one that took some proper investigation and thinking. The plastic oil pump gears on this 2019 Husqvarna FE350 motor were damaged (3rd pic), but it wasn't the usual damage I'm used to seeing. Also noticed the smaller plastic oil pump gear wouldn't move at all.
Dug a little deeper and found a piece of aluminum stuck in the oil pump wheels (1st & 2nd pic). Next question was where did it come from and how did it get there?
Looked a little closer and noticed a piece of aluminum missing from the edge case where the shift shaft stops on the case (3rd pic). The chip off the 'o block was an exact match! Likely chipped off after a big crash that hit the shift lever.
Studied the motor even MORE and noticed the oil pump screen was dislodged and not installed correctly (3rd pic). Bingo! This is what allowed that aluminum chip into the oil pump wheels.
Now just gotta rebuild the crank, rebuild the top end, weld and shape the chipped engine case, install metal oil pump gears, correctly install oil filter mesh screen, and she'll be back to life!
