That's what I'm thinking. The sides of the hole are covered in dusty oil sludge. I think it threw a rod, and he kept driving it on 3 cylinders for who knows how long. Dusty sludge like that might build up somewhat quickly if it was driven on a dusty dirt road, but even then it was driven for a while like that before it finally died for good. That shows a certain lack of mechanical sympathy, to say the least.

For show-and-tell, here are a few pics of my 8V motor's crossflow block ventilation mod:

Crack extends up to the breather box, all along the side.


There's the culprit. The motor mount bracket was broken on this side, it was bolted across two pieces that wanted to come apart.


Yeah, that 16T turbo might have had something to do with this. You can see the hole above the motor mount here.


Clear evidence of bending, which caused the subsequent failure.


This one was bent as well.

In short - 22 psi worth of boost, and pinging, does not a happy engine make.
--
'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic #1141 245 (now w/16V turbo)