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

They can't tell you how long it will last. Its a trade secret.....

 

Now there's an idea. There was a fellow on here that mentioned having a preoiler. He's banned last I saw. Sounded like a good idea.

 

Most bearing wear occurs at start-up, but not all. Think of water smoothing a stone after decades...

But you're right -- that separation by oil should have been another red flag to the consumer: if the miracle coating is not in contact with the crankshaft, how is it supposed to reduce friction? Maybe the micropoo engine does turn better by hand when dry on a workbench, but what about with oil pressure?

 

NASA licenses their technology to industry... its part of their charter. And yeah, they do use a lot of mechanical stuff on things like high pressure turbopumps, thrust gimbals, etc. Try googling "Space Shuttle Main Engine."

 

Ok, but if having a hard journal bearing was the point, why would OEMs use soft metals like lead & its replacements?

 

You want one side of the bearing journal to be malleable, to be self-finishing to a certain extent, for lack of a better way of putting it.

Those soft metals deal well with the cavitation that happens on the low pressure side of the shaft, too.

 

Generally speaking, early lead/tin/babbitt bearings weren't as complex or precision made as the bearings of today.

The 'softness' of this material held several advantages.
1. The bearing surface itself allowed for microscopic surface matrix that allowed lubricants to be present on/in the surface, even at low oil pressure (startup/shutdown).
2. Bearing were designed to be softer than the crank or rod steel, so that any wear would be mainly to the bearing, and not the costlier parts.
3. The softer bearing metal would also embed minute foreign particles, rendering them less harmful, if trapped, between the bearing and crankshaft journals.

A hard bearing material wouldn't allow these advantages, and in fact, would create more problems/disadvantages.

 

To my understanding, tungsten disulfide coatings are a slightly dumbed down, cheaper, and fixed life alternative to the molybdenum disulfide treatments used in jet engines. My father held a pretty important patent on that until his death in 2003. Tungsten disulfide coatings are used in racing engines that are frequently rebuilt or freshened up, and they DO have a fixed life, depending on the loads and temperatures encountered. It does not play well with high detergent lubricants and works best in concert with very low viscosity pure synthetic oils. Molydenum disulfide treatments are not as slick from the standpoint of lubricity, but they last longer and less vulnerable to environmental contamination. The process is also much more complicated and expensive. It is typically done as part of the manufacturing process, not as an aftertreatment like tungsten disulfide. From my reading, the Microblue process can be completely screwed up by minor impurities in the bearing metals.

Now, to my next point. I understand how many of the fine folks here on TTR are willing to crucify KR for his part in this, and yes, he has handled this very poorly, but it appears to me like he was just "the idea man" in this circus of fail. He came up with all the ideas, talked someone into paying for it, and completely left the execution of those ideas in the hands of PP. It looks to me like PP, not KR (not directly, at least) are the ones that should be burned at the stake for this.

If I were the owners, at this point I would be beating down PP's door, demanding a plain old, run of the mill, Detroit certified, reman DDEC-IV to replace this severely overpriced, badly assembled Frankenmotor.

I am not a KR fanboy. I think he's a smarmy, self-important, megalomaniacal walking rectal cavity who seems far more interested in APPEARING to be right than actually BEING right.

(NOTE: the molydenum disulfide process does not lend itself very well to use in internal combustion engines due to its complexity and cost, which led to the development of the tungsten disulfide process)

 

here you go, this describes the process a little more closely, at the bottom you will see Microblue, not sure if I comprehend if they acquired the patent or what.

http://www.google.com/patents/US7232614

Sorry for hijacking the thread. I'm just interested in this microblue / tungsten disulfide. I ordered a pound of the stuff, lol.