Random one, last week I mullered a crank on the dyno when a main bearing failed for no aparant reason, and starved a big end as a result. Whatever, out it came again.
Anyway, bought a new crank, aparantly from a 182, has "03" dot-stamped into the end. Previous crank had "01" so assuming that's its year of mfg.
I'm no stranger to engine builds, but this one looks dodgy to me. Problem (or maybe it isn't a problem at all ?) is that there is only 1 oil way per main journal in the new crank. Old crank had 2 per main journal, 180° apart so that at any crank angle there was always at least one hole in line with the oil-filled channel in the upper-most main bearing. IE, big ends got a constant feed of oil. New crank means that the b/end's will only have oil supply 50% of the time - is that normal ? Or should I be using main shells that have a groove in both halves, not just the upper most ? Do later renault engines use different shells ? Anyone with diaologys confirm that for me ?
The shells I've used are OE renualt this time, can anyone tell me if Renault list a later set of (grooved) shells ?