Is my 4.3 Vortec engine worth fixing?
 

I drove my '96 Blazer with the cel on and paid for it with a breakdown. I had to be towed home. A few days later I tried to move it and pieces of the engine housing fell to the ground. If this engine can be repaired, I'd like to try.

One piece in particular seemed like it might be a clue to the extent of the damage. I hope the attached pics are good enough. I would appreciate it if anyone can identify this part and help me figure out what happened to my poor Blazer.

Where did those parts come from? Did they come from like inside the oil pan? Looks like the piston rod caps

The pics are just different views of the same part. The other pieces came from the housing that is just north of the axle that in turn is just north of the oil pan. I can see another part in there same as the one that broke and it is attached to a rod. I found a pic of a connecting rod which is pretty close to the OEM version:
http://www.campbellenterprises.com/K...es/K-1-rod.jpg

Is my engine fatally wounded, ie has to be pulled out and rebuilt?

yea thats whats left of a conrod and id have to say that you are gonna have to replace the engine as it probaly took out the crankshaft.

I had that same thing happen to my blazer last fall , only I had three of them come out in various places . She was a very strong engine , most of the time it was in mud over the oil pan bouncing off the rev limiter . I'm almost done with my build , I love my blazer now more than ever .

i hate to say this...
but if you find internal engine parts outside of the engine...ummm not good, not good at all.

looks like your gonna need a new horse to keep riding with the texas rangers

warthogdriver, a Louie L'amour fan too?

and you other "war" guys, thanks for the feedback. This engine did 200K+ miles so I shouldn't be too upset, huh? My other Blazer is pretty moldy and rusty but has only 121k something. I'll just keep on changing parts till I get this one up to 200K. Just hope the rust doesn't stop me first.

Yes...a fan for sure.
When my dad and i drive north on road trips we listen to his books on tape to..never get tired of those stories....i think between us we have the full collection