6/27/2011
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No one likes to see this – engine parts and beari...
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Things such as dirt or debris, oil starvation, ov...
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Communication Breakdown: Diagnosing Engine Bearing Failure
Much like the Led Zeppelin song “Communication Breakdown,” there’s usually a lot of screaming and wailing going on when an engine bearing failure occurs.
By Brendan Baker
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Engine builders turn into medical examiners when this happens; getting the story behind the story is what you must do to understand what went wrong and what to do to avoid it in the future.
According to engine bearing experts, a failed bearing is not usually the fault of the bearing but rather the fault of something else happening inside the engine. Things such as dirt or debris, oil starvation, overloading, low viscosity oil, rough journal surface finish and misalignment can be some of the main suspects of a bearing failure.
It’s important to remember that, by and large, the original equipment bearings do a good job up to a certain point in many mild performance applications.
But it all depends on bearings riding on a clean film of oil to create what bearing engineers call a “hydrodynamic wedge,” where the oil provides a cushion between the moving metal parts.
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