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, Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:56:38
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While driving around Litchfield county Connecticut yesterday I came across a guy who owns a buckboard from the 1850's. It is in almost museum condition. The level of technology they had 160 years ago amazes me. I was really interested in knowing what kind of bearings they used on the axles. While I couldn't really see too much, it's fairly obvious they used friction bearings since the ball bearing probably wasn't invented for another 50 years or so.
The Otto cycle 4 stroke internal combustion engine was invented in the late 19th century. It used a solid connecting rod that was bored out and the bearing surfaces of the rod were babbitted with a lead tin alloy not that
different metallurgically from the thin-wall steel shell inserts used since about 1930.
Thus, engine failure remains exactly the same today as it was 100 years ago. An engine might be over-revved until the molecule thick hydrodynamic lubrication fails to keep bearing from journal, and the bearing meets the journal destructively. The immediate result is a scored bearing and a scored journal. As the damage progress and the clearance grows the rod or main begins to knock, or bang. The oil pressure light comes on, or the oil gauge falls to near zero since there's a large leak in the scored bearing. There are other reasons for bearing failure also.
You would need to unbolt each rod and main bearing and inspect for scoring. It's probably less costly to buy a used engine than rebuild a Saab engine with new parts. There's always risk that a rebuilt engine will fail in some unexpected way. To me, it's amazing that engines work at all. The slightest failure of lubrication for even a few seconds (and maybe less) is a threat to the integrity of the bearings amd journals, the same bearings that were used 110 years ago. Also, these are the same bearings that are used in every level of car, from Bentleys to Maximas to Pintos. A crankshaft is a crankshaft, you might say.
posted by 24.91.27...
, Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:32:20, Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:49:08, Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:56:38, Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:24:38, Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:34:28, Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:32:43, Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:37:26
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