Anyone ever see or hear of this happening? My wife's '97 4cyl automatic had an oil leak coming from the pan. No big deal. I dropped the pan and was scraping off the old gasket when I noticed a few chunks of metal in the bottom. Turns out the head of one of her connecting rods sheared off and and apparently took a piece of the piston skirt with it. There's never been any indication (noise, pinging, shavings in the oil, etc) that anything was wrong.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1062/814363...3321a1f.jpg?v=0
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1250/814364...67f2c68.jpg?v=0

(pen in pics for size reference)

I'm planning on replacing the 2 affected connecting rods and the bearings. I'm not worried about the piston as it appears fine other than the little chip out of the skirt. I'm just shocked that the engine didn't fail when it happened. Anyone ever hear of this type of failure? Any suggestions for doing the repair? What is the large gold/brass colored plate on the bottom of the engine that's keeping me from seeing the #2 and #3 piston? This is the first time I've been into this particular engine, so thanks for any feedback!

Hello:

I found the same part(s) in the oil pan of my 1998-104,000 mile 2.2 engine. I also found a broken rod on my driveway. The block has a hole in it so I'm looking for another engine.
I also can't understand how your engine held together but I suspect a spin above 5,000 RPM would have changed everything.

I'm no mechanic but here goes:
I think that gold colored pan holds a pair of balancer shafts. They are driven by a gear off the crank. Easy to remove but there must be some alignment marks you need to pay attention to on assembly.

I would think you can replace the rod bolts and be on your way. I don't see how you plan on changing a rod without some major disassembly. Strange how the engine held together with that type of failure. I guess you could call yourself lucky in a weird kind of way