I've always been of the opinion that most engine failures are a: the
throttle cable operator, b: the guy that changes the oil!
Whenever I've toasted one of my engines - which I build myself - the problem
was stuff like 'the oil pressures down - maybe it'll come back if I back off
by 200 rev's for a corner or two' or 'the engines hot - let's see what
happens in a few laps - now it's cooled down - now it's seized' (temp
senders tend to send cool temps when there's no water left in the engine...).
The 'oil changer' stuff is things not checking the harmonic balancer often
enough (1275 A series tend to eat the things if you rev the engine), using
used rods and not having the big ends resized, and so on.
I've never had an engine failure that I couldn't honestly attribute to
faulty assembly, maintenance, operation or cheapness on my part. Now that I
get professionals to build my transmissions (tranny's are major causes of
engine failures on Mini's:)), buy ARP bolts for everything that's
reciprocating, buy good guages and actually read them, get blocks
line-honed, rods sized, etc. etc., it's amazing how much better my engine
building has become!
Cheers, Brian Evans
At 01:12 PM 12/5/96 -0500, you wrote:
>There was an interesting article in Circle Track on this subject a few
>months back. Perhaps the authors could provide some leads. I think I
>have the copy at home. I'll look.
>
>One of their interesting conclusions was that after a massive failure,
>it's often true that the part with the most damage is NOT the one that
>caused the failure. According to them, too many engine failures are
>blamed on the con rods, when in fact something else caused it.
>
Brian Evans
Director, General Sales
UUNET Canada Inc.
20 Bay Street, Suite 1910
Toronto, ON, M5J 2N8
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