Recent content by Kevin C

In the interest of science, I ran a sample of the oil with the failed bearing. The lead level had dropped but the copper was up. I'm sure that this was because the lead facing on the bearing was gone. On the teardown, there are no signs of any other wear of copper based surfaces. When I...

The run that most likely caused the damage the engine had about 10 minutes of warm-up. Not ideal but not super bad in warm weather. It is interesting, that the factory specs tight clearances and 5W-40 oil. I'm pretty sure it was a lack of flow from a combination of clearances and viscosity.

The main bearing upgrade is going from bi-metal to ACL Trimetal, so its a significant upgrade. I am considering revising the tune to reduce boost under 3500 rpm. The stock rev limiter on the engine is 6800 rpm, I upped it to 7400. The pressure relief was shimmed to add an extra 10 psi. I am...

Me too, based on its looks it should have been noisy. The running clearance had opened up to about .003". The remaining surfaces still feel very slippery, like the polymer coating is still there. This is the first wiped out rod bearing that I have pulled from an engine that feels slippery...

More trouble than I had expected. This is not an aggressive target for this engine, lots of builds target 500+ hp, also this is WHP, not CHP. That said, I got five years of driving out of it and the crank is still good. The rod bearings that look good say its possible. It was the #2...

This week I finally pulled the motor apart. The source of the lead was one wiped out rod bearing. The bearing had overheated and smeared, flaked and cracked but had not spun. The bore on the rod was blue from heat, the bearing journal on the crank showed no discoloring and measures out like...

The plan was to pull the motor out and inspect it over the Christmas holiday. The engine still runs great, no strange noises. On December 22nd I got rear-ended by an uninsured, unlicensed driver (or his girlfriend it was not clear who was driving). Between insurance and that its hard to get...

A very good point. I did get confirmation from ACL that that the top bearing layer is about 85% lead (they were very responsive to my questions). I have have started to order the long lead parts (Cometic head gasket is one) and I will keep an eye on the metal levels. Plug inspection will be on...

In general I agree. That said I was pointing out correlation and as we know that does not determine causation. The reason for the changes was that Redline has a higher 100°C viscosity (double check but it should be 15.6 cst, VS Mobil 1 5W-40 at 13.2. The intention was to get use an oil...

What does 122 pmm of lead mean? As a reality check I worked it out. My understanding is the the PPM is mass based (not volume). Given that: The engine holds 4.5 quarts or 4257ml. If the density is .866 g/ml I have 3686.6 grams of oil. If the lead is at 122 ppm, then there is at least 0.45...

Before commiting to a teardown I have been do a bit of research and managed to come up with a theory. There are several layers to the Tri-Metal bearings. First is the steel shell. The next layer is a copper lead tin alloy When ACL specifics the tri metal alloy, the are calling out the thick...

The car is a 2003 Audi A4. I have been keeping an eye on the copper because it seemed bit higher than I would expect. I built a 1.8T using the block, crank and oil pump system from a 2.0TFSI to make what might be the only "1.8T " with a counter balance system to cancel second order...

This is the second consecutive run on Redline, the first Redline run had 0 lead.

The lab results on my 1.8T have me a bit concerned. After 25,000 miles on a new build I got a spike in lead that I don't have a good explanation for. Engine: 1.8T stroker 320hp / 22 psi boost, street driven Total Miles Since Build: 25,000 Bearing Types: Mains: Factory Aluminum (polymer...