Re: Illicit Pleasures / oil

["Hydee" <hydee@underground.prestel.co.uk>]

Hi,
How long the engine will run for depends on the big end bearings. 
Some engines use roller bearings which will last for ages. Shell 
bearings will typically last a few thousand revs. The white metal 
bearing surface can have many different alloys some of which can last 
considerably loger than others. There have even been engines whose 
big-ends were 'splash' lubricated.

An interesting point here. A shell bearing run with a good supply of 
clean oil will never fail, a rolling element bearing will always fail 
eventually. The main rason for shells failing is the dry, or near dry 
conditions and low oil flow at start up. Maximum  oil film pressures 
in a shell bearing reach into the 100s of P.S.I. the oil pump pressure
 being present to ensure an adequate supply of oil to the bearings.

A friend of mine once fully reconditioned a Honda CBX 6 cyl motorcycle engine and 
forgot to put oil in it before starting it. It ran for about 10 secs 
before the horrible grinding noises started. At 150 GBPounds for a gasket 
set and 8 GBPounds per half shell he never made that mistake again!

Yamaha XJ900 motorcycles seem to have combined oil level/ pressure 
warning lights on them. I'm not taking the engine apart to find out 
how though cos it's only done 90,000 miles. (and I've only re-shimmed 
the valves once.)

Cheers,
Richard.


> 
> > As per recent thread (Oct 96ish) on "snake oil" (slick 50 et al)
> > an engine can run for quite some time without oil (hours) before
> seizing.
> > If  you want a copy of the FAQ mail me offline (it has been
> distributed
> > a number of times on this list). John '84 XJ6
>

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