We’ve shown engine teardown videos here on EngineLabs before, in what I’d like to think is a pretty good variety of engines. However, this is definitely a first. Thanks to Paul Jensen, the owner of Team Throttle Monster, we’re getting an inside look at something most people will never get to see — a 540 cubic-inch, blown alcohol monster truck engine. With five monster trucks in the stable, maintaining engines is no small feat, but there are procedures in place for blowing up an engine.

After exchanging engines in Vendetta, Jensen drove the hurt engine to Shaun Hale at Hunter Machine to figure out what failed and get it all put back together. Hale has been working on Throttle Monsters engines for about a decade, so to say he’s familiar with the platform is an understatement. After draining the oil out of the 540-inch big-block Chevrolet, Hale got to work.

A monster truck engine is a serious build. The blown-alcohol engines have Brodix CNC-ported heads and spin to 9,000 rpm while doing their thing in the arena. The first steps in the teardown are to pull the lower blower manifold and the valve covers, exposing an incredibly robust valvetrain capable of withstanding not just a few trips up to 9,000 rpm, but extended stints up there.

The valvetrain for a 9,000-rpm big-block is no joke, especially when it has to endure those engine speeds for sustained periods, while engaging in vehicular acrobatics.

The Brodix heads come off to reveal an O-ringed copper head gasket and studs holding everything together. It also revealed a lack of piston-to-valve contact or damaged ring lands anywhere on the driver’s side of the engine. A small witness mark was identified near the intake valve of cylinder three. The passenger side revealed the same lack of damage as the driver side, with no bonus witness marks.

Flipping the short-block over and pulling the oil pan immediately showed surface rust on the oil pump and bottom of the pan, but nothing identifying or explaining the loss of oil pressure reported by the driver. The mystery continued as the rod caps were pulled and the rods and pistons were knocked out. The rod bearings looked remarkably good, even without expecting to find carnage.

A bit of skirt wear on the pistons as they came out didn’t reveal anything. Neither did the one rod bearing that showed signs of a bit of debris going through at some point, but nothing that would cause a loss of oil pressure. The camshaft came out and looked to be in perfectly good condition, and the cam bearings showed no excessive wear.

The final step in the teardown was to pop the splayed billet main caps off, inspect the bearings, and the crankshaft itself. On the thurst bearing, evidence of the piece of debris going through the bearings matched the rod bearing, but again, nothing that would qualify as a “blown up.”

As expected for a blown alcohol combination making a ton of power, the crank and rods are severe-duty units, and the billet splayed four-bolt mains have their hands full keeping everything in place. Seeing signs of a little cap walk on teardown didn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the room.

After a thorough inspection of the parts off of the engine, Hale declared everything to be in great shape, with the only wear found to be as expected or better than expected. “I guess no news is good news,” Hale laughed. Rather than being upset that a perfectly good engine was torn down, Jensen looked at it logically. “We spend a lot of money on these motors, and I’m glad we don’t have a major problem, and that Mike caught it when he did, in the truck. We’d rather spend a few thousand dollars rebuilding it than 60,000 dollars replacing it.”

Also, it’s not like it was a fresh engine, as was noted at the beginning of the teardown, the engine had 16.2 hours on it, and Monster Jam engines are usually pulled and freshened up at 17 hours of run time. Then, for the sake of entertainment, Hale pulled out some components from Jensen’s box o’ shame, with some of the better component failures throughout their relationship.

While there wasn’t any carnage on this go around, the engine was due for a refresh anyway. And, it afforded us a rare glimpse inside of a 9,000-rpm, 540-cube monster truck engine. Luckily, all of the major components will live to see another 17 hours at wide-open throttle as they bounce, spin, and fly through the arena.

In this instance, nothing was actually wrong, and all the components were in reusable shape, save for the bearings. As Jensen says, better to spend the money on a routine refresh than a complete rebuild after something catastrophic happens.