Biggest causes of engine and drivetrain failure?

[SxyBeast]

Looking to do some unofficial research here for a little something i'm designing. I won't get into specifics for since mentioning this in a few posts already.

I need some input from you extremely knowledgable and experienced car guru's. Most specifically Skyline guru's.

I need to know the major causes of engine, drivetrain failure (moving parts only). Engine, tranny, brakes, diff. For a stock Skyline, modified, and race spec. What causes failure most? Age, excessive stress, heat, high rpm, etc. Please leave out human error, I don't need to know about idiots leaving out one piston rod bolt. Just the natural causes. And please elaborate a little.

Appreciate any input.

Thanks.

[archaeic_bloke]

oil starvations gotta be the big one. thats been adressed by wider oil pump drives though and sump baffle plates.

actually, i would say exactness and precision of parts manufacturing... the more precise the build of an engine the higher RPM it can rev....

[mcfly]

negligence and misinformation

[RABBIT]

driver.

[actionbstard]

2nd that plus improper maintenance

[Marke]

I would say improper tuning, leading to detonations, leading to bearing failure and piston damage. Lots of other things can break, due to detonation, but pistons and bearings seem to be most common.

I also like mcfly's answer. It pretty much covers everything, but maybe not as specific as you might be looking for.

[BenC]

It's a skyline. They don't need a reason. They just do

[C-unit]

Cheap out.

[M13]

Heat and load specifically.

[christdeyoung]

Drivetrain gear gets fukked up from shock loading, which comes from the driver most of the time.

Transmission failure occurs most of the time when gears are allowed to engage before they are synchronized....or again from shock loading. Shifting fast wears synchros and allows this to happen....increasing your revlimiter/shift points also increases the load on your synchros exponentially, as will adding any weight to the input shaft.
What would you add to your input shaft to make it heavier?/why? This happens when you fit that heavy duty triple plate clutch....well guess what, each time you shift gears, the synchros have to change the speed of the input shaft to match that of the output shaft (and all of this happens from the time you put it from the neutral spot, to its home). So when you put your big OSG triple plate on that spline...you're adding weight in the form of 3 friction disks.

For an engine, it was said before me....heat and stress is the killer. Tensile strength of a material decreases with an increase in temperature...tensile stress increases with revs. The question as to what parts get commonly overstressed and fail, is answered in many many MANY threads between here, gtr.co.uk, gtrowners.uk, skylinesdownunder.com, skylinesaustralia.com, etc. Theres a complete wealth of information there since there are 100x the number of skyline owners, because they didn't get theirs through a 'loophole' lol (Fukking RHD propaganda ********).

Good luck on whatever it is you're engineering...since you have to ask this question, I'd say we're a long ways away from seeing what it's going to be. Just be original. Nobody gets cool points for doing things that have been done over and over. Think completely outside the box and you have the right brains, you just might produce something useful.

[GTR-Dad]

Here's a link to a SAU thread on engine failures.

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Report-engine-failure-t46581.html&hl=engine+failure

Dan

[Skym]

The biggest weak points of RB engine that I've seen is lack of maintenance and other weak points of the RB engine, like what was mentioned above, oilstarvation, overreving (rod through side of block or breaks crank oilpump drive), use of multiplate clutches which damages transmission, engine.

Hard launches damage drivetrain. Propshaft joint near diffhead (including hanger bearing failure), halfshaft joints near both rear wheels, diffhead (single spinner) is what happens with drivetrain on GTS model. Drivetrain on GTR or GTS usually needs to be replaced or rebuilt after constant hard use. Same problem with suspension arm, subframe bushes.

If serviced like a racecar (oil changed before and after hard use) and engine, etc rebuilt every 2500-5000kms (racecar engine rebuild km), should be very reliable.

[actionbstard]

yep any engine will last if proper maintenance is done by the book.
I keep track at miles and dates.keep a graf to insure you don't forget anything at the time maintenance is done and write down everything thats been done.If track then use a different graf one for dd and another for hard use (track).Don't be afriad to ask this guys here.They know there stuff and they are always free for good advise.
Get your hands on a FSM

[Snow]

Please leave out human error, I don't need to know about idiots leaving out one piston rod bolt. Just the natural causes. And please elaborate a little.

driver.

Glad to see you contributing... Quit inflating your post count by posting useless notes.

I would say that proper maintenance is key. Using stock parts of course you are going to run into huge problems with excess power. It would also depend on driving style as I would assume... driving it like a maniac and flatshifting all around town can't be too good for anything. Nor is bouncing off the rev limiter...

[SxyBeast]

Lots of very good and interesting info here! I've gotten what I needed. Aside from my need for this info, there is some very interesting valuable stuff here for inexperienced Skyliners. Thanks alot guys.

With respect to uniqueness, so far so good. I've done a few patent searches and product searches and found nothing. :biggrin:
It's very hard to develope a totally new innovation for the auto industry, it's all been done a million times before. I hope this works!