Tom,

In defense of Marathon and whoever pulled the codes on the engine prior to the sale this is something that likely was an internal physical failure of something and it would not have given any warning. Remember the fellow that posted about the engine gear box that burst apart in the area around the water pump and took the whole engine with it at less than 30,000 miles?

When the piston failures were occurring the DD dealer showed me several engine blocks being returned to DD. The damage was extensive and is not something that would have occurred with any warning. In those instances the top half of the piston separated from the skirt right at the wrist pin. Either half of the piston could cock sideways in the cylinder, and the connecting rod soon separated from the two halves and literally smashed a hole through the engine block, the oil pan, and anything else it got punched into before the engine quit.