Kevin Rutherfrauds $200000 Signature glider truck has complete engine failure!!!

We're was is stated they lugged this motor under load? From what I read they crusied on flatter terrain at 1250 or whatever, but then shifted as soon as they came to a clime. Plus they were MT 50% of the time. Not buying the lugging thing at all.

 

One of the pics they have is a page from Federal Mogul showing the damage from a trapped particle.

The bearing on the left is out of the Sig Truck, the right is the example.

 

i killed a marine diesel in 1000 hours running it 5 percent under later recommended RPMs.

Lugging is Lugging, even if it is not having an immense amount of fuel shoved down it the motor is still not breathing and is building excessive heat.. I never had a oil breakdown problem being it was Rotella changed every 100 hours.

Long before I ever had boats with diesels I used to Plow fields . It was was hammered into me to use the lower gear to maintain the top of the RPMs to constantly plow 12 hours a day to save the motor from excessive heat buildup and wear.

Never Ever lug the motor is what I was taught from the age of 15.The only reason I killed my marine diesels was the RPM stated by the manufacture proved to be incorrect.

Sound familial?

The motor was simply on it's way to being hammered to death by the builders RPM recommendation

 

That spot shown of their rod bearing could simply be a low spot burning through the next layer of bearing instead of a high spot being exposed by wear.

I would like a non highlighted pic of that bearing . I hang on a site where many reputable very high horsepower boats engine builders frequent and they have seen it all.

Be nice to get some real honest feedback .

What either example shown fails to acknowledge is the other consistent wear that is present in the bottom of both bearings

 

If lugging caused the failure, why are we only seeing bearing wear on 1 bearing?

 

Although lugging an engine is not good, I can't go with the...over fueling...idea. The trucks I drive at Machinery Hauling so much fuel turned to them black smoke was rolling on any incline, but these were mechanicals too. The white / blue 1983 Pete had a cat engine that would roll a good 12 inch orange ball of flames out both 6" straights on union hill over on route 32 between Portsmouth and Cincinatti. Although some excess fuel will get past the rings and go to the pan, it mostly goes right out into the exhaust coating a thin layer all in the exhaust, and when hard pulling comes into play the extended "normal" flames from the engine start burning the excess film of fuel on the inside of the exhaust. When you fired that truck up in the mornings it was common for black soot to belch out both pipes and settle like black snow on the ground. We drove it for years and it was never hurt, but once again it was a mechanical engine. Before Pop died he sold that truck to U.S.E.D in Huntington which was behind the old Owens-Illinois plant, and one that was in there 15 or so years ago may have seen it. So all in all I can not go with the over fueling idea, now lugging on the other hand is a horse of another color, but even at that, there is enough evidence already on the table to say "sloppy work"!!

 

From our 'distant chair', I'll give you that certain things like this can be open for debate, however I don't see this as a low wear spot for 2 reasons.
But I'm open to hear what the marine diesel experts, that you refer to, have to say.

1. The isolated wear area is similar to an "island" on the entire surface. Your thought is it's possibly a slightly submerged island, rather than an elevated island.
Considering the crank (rod) journal is a true circular & smooth surface (less than .001 variation) AND is rotating inside the bearing, then it seems to me the wear spot (IF it truly was into a lower layer) would not be in one solitary point on the bearing (hence, the "island").

2. I would expect any low spot (enough to wear into the underlying layer) to likely be a much larger 'band' all the way across the bearing surface, literally edge to edge, or center to edge (as in an 'out of tolerance' tapered journal) . But the owner's bearing shows one isolated spot, with the 'normal' bearing surface completely all around that isolated wear spot.

To verify if it is actually a high spot or a low spot, it would be quite easy. I simple exam with a magnifier/microscope, with the wear 'edge' viewed at an angle, should show where the higher/lower edge of the wear spot really lies. Perhaps it wouldn't even require a microscope or magnification, and just a simple 'fingernail-like' edge test.

 

1250 rpm is not lugging on a properly tuned electronic engine. If a tune is bad enough to allow you to do damage at that rpm, it should come with a disclaimer.



And again, here is Fitzgerald saying the 12.7 can be run down to 1050rpm:

Tens of thousands of training fleet trucks survived clueless drivers doing all sorts of things to their Series 60's -- to call this driver error at 100,000 miles without any of the tattletales being flagged is just pushing the blame...

www.gliderkits.net/pdf/owners-manual.pdf

 

after 38 years running commercial fishing boats i have no idea what lugging a commercial rated marine engine might mean
some idle for hours a day while hauling pots
some tow nets at certain rpms to catch shrimp
they are made to do that
unless your referring to some cat 3208 that they have forced up to 475 hp
when the same block was a 3160 in 1980 with 165 hp
then you can only run so much fuel thru them before they are junk
only suited for sport fish boats going zoom zoom