Donington Park - 15th April

[AdamR]

Engine out is pretty easy, much more so than a 'normal' car. Have a crane you can borrow from near Chorley if any use 

Perhaps a call to Andy Bates will be a good idea, try and work out what's happened, but my guess is oil related.

Were you on full chat when it went? What was oil level like at the start of the day?

[maurici]

Ouch... very sorry to see that...

I looks like the bolts of the rods have failed... normally that happens because over speed in the piston rather than oil problems...

Ive never seen this before.

[TAFKARM]

Donington claims another, gutted for you but keep your chin up and get straight back on sorting it before you lose motivation!

[Mole]

I agree..I hope the few laps you did have gave you a feel for the fun in the future! I wish you good luck in finding the root cause..

[TomS]

3 hours ago, AdamR said:

Engine out is pretty easy, much more so than a 'normal' car. Have a crane you can borrow from near Chorley if any use 

Perhaps a call to Andy Bates will be a good idea, try and work out what's happened, but my guess is oil related.

Were you on full chat when it went? What was oil level like at the start of the day?

Engine crane would be very useful indeed, thanks for the offer! If you happen to have a spare afternoon I’d happily provide beer tokens for a hand with getting it out. I’m only about 25 mins from Chorley. Always easier with an extra pair of hands when doing it for the first time (oh aye).

I’ve spoken to Andy and he’s going to let me know what engines he has in stock tomorrow. He thinks it’s either debris or oil starvation.

The car missed a couple of shifts earlier on but I didn’t think anything of it as it’s all new to me and with it being a BEC I assumed it might have some niggles with the quickshifter…or it was trying to tell me something was about to happen.

Oil level was fine and I was watching the pressure the session before and didn’t notice anything. The session it went was the first time I’d really put my foot down though.

[AdamR]

No worries, knew you weren't far away  I've got mine on the dyno today, if that goes OK then I should be able to spare an afternoon in the coming weeks, if I end up in the same boat as you then maybe not 

Missed shifts won't be related, unless it's really bad and put swarf into the engine. Personally I prefer getting rid of as many 'fiddly' electronics as possible but I'm told the quickshifters can be made to work reliably.

A note which I'm sure you were aware of, but I'll add for the sake of future searchers - oil level on these needs to be significantly over the full mark on the dipstick, and taken without it screwed in. The min and max markers can be ignored, and oil level filled to where the round stick transitions to the flat portion, approx 300-400ml overfill:

I'll let you know about how today goes and if / when I can lend a hand  First step is to get a label printer and label up the loom before you take all the connectors off!

[TomS]

Good luck at the dyno, I bet you’ve triple checked everything after reading all this!

Good idea with the labelling! 

[maurici]

I'm not the best on engine building, but i know something about engine failures.

This failure, looks unlikely to me to be related to oil pressure.

When is a lubrication problem in the rods bearings, normally the rod grips to the crank, the rod bends and then snaps in the weakest section of the rod witch is normally near to the piston. 

Yours, whith what appears to be a perfectly straight rod, and still whith the bearing in place, looks like end caps bolts failure. Either for mechanical failure, fatige, over-torque... or over speed of the piston.

But, Again, From only a picture is fairly difficult to say. I would sujjest a closer inspection to the bearings. They will be, of course damaged, but if it was an oil problem, I would expect to see some temperature colouring in the metal as it gets VERY hot just before gripping. Inspect also all the other bearings to find evidences of an oil pressure problem... I would expect to see "traces" of friction already.

Good luck with it, and hopefully you find a new unit promptly, but is important to understand what has happened. Hope this information is handy when the time comes...

[TAFKARM]

side note: can you over rev a bike engine on the downchange or does the slipper clutch offer some protection?

[AdamR]

In theory it will allow you to put it in 1st gear at 2 bazillion mph and lift the clutch, and all will be fine, because it separates the clutch plates (therefore no drive from rear wheels to engine):

 

[TomS]

That was one of my first thoughts coming from a non-BEC track car but I’ve seen a few videos of a similar Westfield knocking it down 2-3 gears at a time without any issue with the exact same setup as mine.