Well folks, It looks like to me that it is a forged steel rod, and it is probably a high silicon cast piston.
And from what I see- the damage was done on the previous trips- It just finished in the driveway.
The culprit was detonation - or pinging that you probably heard on the last trip.
It was not hydro locked.
On the piece of the piston in dcpo1731.jpeg I can see where the crack was there for some time, and the bottom of the piston shows a carbon buildup from excessive heat.
It was caused lean condition caused by a dirty injector.
HTH

 

After studying the pictures more closely I would agree with sjholt the top came off the piston and it would indicate that it had been cracked for awhile. The right side of the picture 1732 would indicate this. What clyinder was it? And yes change at least that one injector. There is a lot of theory both ways on changing one or all injectors. I have change just one on a few vehicles and saw no issues. When this is reasembled insure not vaccum leaks or cracks in the manifold especially in the area of that clyinder.

 

It was the #1 piston that went. Well I want to thank everybody for there input on this topic. They only thing I can say is this engine never did ping since I've had it, but I have only had it for a year so who knows what problems the other owner had.

Again thanks for all the input. Time to get the new short-block together and get back to camping.

Ed

 

Besides a ping, it could have been cracked by hydrostatic lock way before the major failure.

 

It was not caused by any kind of hydrolic pressure. Good chance it was caused by a miss firing coil pack not by a fuel injector. Because all the cylinders conditions where the same. It was a long process and finaly took out the ring glands in that piston which is the weak link of these engines. Ford finaly put forged pistons in the 4.6 and the Super Charged 5.4 engines. The stock pistons are HYPERTEC cast units. They don't like any kind of detonation or loading of the cylinder with unburnt fuel. The coil packs failed in the Mustangs and engines came apart just like yours did. The pistons broke apart slowly until there was no support for the rod. Being that the complete line of Modular engines are long rodded engines they don't have rod angles like the other Ford engines. A 302 would have taking out the cylinder walls and then the rod would break and take out the bottom of the block still running. Ford has for years been using forged pistons and rods in there performance MOD engines. You can get forged pistons and H beam rods for your V10 engine. They are at least four times stronger or more than the stock units. I would like to see a stroker kit for the V10 engine and beter block that can be bored and stroked up to 500 plus cu.in. or bigger. With the three valve heads it would great for are trucks and give all the others something to think about including the PSD. I owned a Ford Speed Shop in ILLINIOS until 1992 but I still build Ford racing engines. The Mod engines are a great engine. A lot of engineering went into these motors. But of course the bean counter got involved and then they make them cheaper to save money. Good luck with your new engine. Ron

 

Ron,

Thanks for that great explanation.

So in your opinion am I going to have the same problem a few years down the road?

Thanks,
Ed

 

Not disagreeing with anything else in your post, mrford49... However, it's "hypereutectic".

 

go with aftermarket forged pistons, chrome moly rings and forged rods with your new block. have crank magnafluxed and checked for straightness...have the block crank bores line bored...have the crank assembly with new pistons dynamically balanced
send in all 10 injectors to professional injector shop for cleaning and spray pattern balance testing....looking for all 10 to be within 5% flow rate
put on an extra large oil cooler and engine oil temp gauge
use a laptop with EEC-V scanner engine monitor software while driving to monitor engine op. parameters...coolant temp.....fuel trims...any misfires