Displacement on demand

[NoDOHC]

Originally Posted by RETed

The problem with D.O.D. engines is the nasty harmonics it induces due to the "misfires".
I predict your engine is going to eat itself by the end of the year.
More accurately, it's going to kill all it's bearings and - in extreme - the e-shaft too.


-Ted

Have you seen misfire-related bearing failures Ted?
I didn't even consider this, now you have me a little bit worried.

However, let me list my experiences:
I knew a guy who purchased an FC (this was about 10 years ago when they were $100 each) with a 'blown engine' we got it running (on one rotor) and disconnected the injectors for the dead rotor (to keep from damaging the exhaust) and he drove the car for 5,000+ miles just like that. He loaned the car to a friend who smashed it up a little and decided that he would fix the damage really quickly (headlight doors, etc.) He opened the hood and observed that the secondary injector was unplugged and he thought that he had figured out why the car was so gutless. He took the manifold apart, plugged the primary back in, put it all back together and 'fixed' the problem. The other rotor had apparently started making compression again some time during that 5,000 miles.

The point is that the car ran great on both rotors, he ran it for a while after that and never had any issues. This was with continued operation on the same rotor for 5,000 miles. I never saw this engine apart so I can't attest to the bearing condition, but the engine made good oil pressure and ran well.

I also had a friend who blew a rotor in New York while on his way to Nebraska. He unplugged the injectors to the dead rotor and drove all the way to Nebraska and back on one rotor. I helped him rebuild his engine and the good rotor looked like brand-new (not even any carbon) his bearings had no damage at all, we re-used all of them. In fact, I put the good rotor in a different engine after his blew up a second time.

The bearing problem might be a turbo-only failure (I hope).