engine blow up

[taleed]

There are many different variables that can lead to an engine blow so anyone can assume as much as they want.

Offcourse the technical engineers will check over every part of the engine twice before assembling it but the truth is that to get the right car, all the components of it has to be balanced. The right suspension, fuel ratio for every track and even how the driver handles it can somewhat greatly affect the destiny of how far the f1 car can survive in a race.

Question: An exceeded amount of oil leaks into the combustion area can lead to a loss of pressure that means less speed. Can this lead to an engine blow?

[manchild]

Question: An exceeded amount of oil leaks into the combustion area can lead to a loss of pressure that means less speed. Can this lead to an engine blow?

If it leaks that would mean that some mechanical failure happened on piston rings, head gasket or intake valve. Big loss of pressure/loss of oil in lubricating system would lead to overheating of rest of the oil because amount of oil circulating in engine would constantly drop leading to its overheating and therefore overheating of bearings finally leading to mechanical failures and possible blow (although overheated engine usually boils rather than blowing but it all depends on specific situation).

If all elements of engine would be overheated more-less in same amount than engine would stall and boil but if only one or just few parts would be overheated than such imballance would lead to blow rather than stalling.

Example: If all bearings on crankshaft would be overheated in same amount engine would probably stall but if only one or few more bearings would be overheated than eventually that would lead of snapping of one connecting rod which would than make the hole in block (blow) or launch the piston so that it would smash the valves and head (blow).

Basically there are two kinds of blows - blow trough exhaust or blow trough the hole in engine block although they can happen in the same time.

[taleed]

Thanks for the info

[DaveKillens]

If oil leaks into the combustion chamber then it means some component is flawed in some way, a crack, or scratch, or pitting, any number of reasons. Usually problems like this don't heal or go away, they become worse. The cracks or pitting grows, eventually to become major failures. And if oil can leak in, then combustion gases can leak out, contaminating the oil supply. Even if the oil filters pick up all the particles, the oil won't be of the quality intended, it may become diluted from gas, air, or excess heat. Parts overheat, bearings don't get the lubrication they need, the vicious cycle intensifies until something goes bang.

[taleed]

...So if this was in a race situation and this problem was noticed immediatley, do you think it could be fixed?

[bhall]

Any repair of that nature would almost certainly eliminate any chance of a points finish. So why bother?

[taleed]

ok...for future reference, i just thought there might be a chance to some sort of recovery like switching off the engine and getting towed in to quickly repair the smallest damage done for example.

(If there is is anyone opposing please comment).

[RH1300S]

I think the rules will not allow you to be towed back to the pits during the race

Otherwise - the chances of whipping off the heads and sticking it all back together in a few seconds ar pretty slim................why bother. Those engines take many man weeks to put together in the first place, not a thing to be rushed.

[G-Rock]

Well boys, Ferrari intends to rev past 20000rpm on a regular basis for Brazil. My prediction, left bank, burnt piston, oil all over track at around lap 35 for Schumacher/qualifying for Massa.

[DaveKillens]

Just changing the spark plugs on a Formula One engine would take at least five minutes. F1 cars just aren't designed for quick maintenance. If you have to do some work that takes over sixty seconds, you won't even see points.

With modern computer analysis and the budgets in F1, the engineers can accurately predict how long a component will survive under load before the mathematical odds of failure become risky.
Engine parts just don't survive up to a certain load then break, they can withstand a certain number of stress cycles before fatigue starts to come in. So for designing a one shot engine that HAS to win the race, where second place doesn't matter, Michael Schumacher's engine will be a screamer.

[mep]

Mercedes engine runs in the area of 20 000 1/min for
a few races now.

[Mikey_s]

IMO the schum engine failure was a sudden, unpredicted failure. I think I mentioned earlier in the thread that oil analysis is carried out at every opportunity to check for wear metals in the lube which would signal something which was starting to break. I recall the british GP (1999 I think) Irv had a engine change on the basis that there were increased wear metals in the lube - the telemetry showed nothing, Swerve felt nothing, but they changed the engine and subsequently found that one of the components would have failed and resulted in a DNF.

If they do pick up increased wear metals they can often identify with a degree of certainty which component is failing from the signature of the metal composition. It is inconceivable that they might have detected increased wear prior to the race and done nothing about it.

[DaveKillens]

Yea Mikey, that is one part of the methodology in protecting equipment. I used to be involved in stuff like that. It's called S.O.A.P for "Spectrometric Oil Analysis Program". Oil samples are taken after each run, and sent to the lab. The oil is analysed for any and all foreign substances, especially metals. It is all cataloged and graphed, and a history is kept. Additionally, each part of the engine is logged and it's metallic composition is known. Then a comparison starts to make sense.
For instance, if there is usuallyan increase of 2% in bronze for each million revolutions, then the graph suddenly shows an increase of 15% per million revolutions, and the only bronze components are plain bearings, then obviously those bearings are showing wear above acceptable levels.