help required for cylinder head report.

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wee_man

wee_man

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I've got to do 4 reports for part of my uni course and one of them I've chosen on cylinder heads and come to a grinding halt.
Basically I've got to writing about the oil ways in the cylinder head. The situation is this - here are my notes on this section:
• In the cast are oil and water ways to allow oil into the camshaft casing to lubricate the cams so they don’t overheat and seize. This is through channels and gulley’s, and the oil is pressure fed. Mention that the engine inspected had oil pressure drop and that the engine broke because of the lack of oil pressure. Possible ways to overcome this?
Problem is, what are the possible ways to avoid oil pressure dropping in the cylinder head and particularly the camshaft?! My tutor said to research it, but I haven't been able to find any material on this kind of thing. I've searched my library and the net, but to no avail. So 2nd best is asking the knowledge of GTP. Any of you guys got any suggestions?
I can't think of any logical possible ways to overcome this other than changing and flushing the oil out of the engine everytime before a race etc. That's just impractical and not likely to do any good.
Any help would be muchos appreciated.
Cheers guys
 
this is the best I can give you...
while there is no way to be certain that a failure will not happen, you can resort to passive prevention, meaning that watching an oil pressure gauge ( along with all others) closely is the best thing you can do, and if it goes to low, you gotta shut it down
There is no way to prevent a mechanical failure in an engine, most unfortunately...
the only thing one can do is buy the best quality parts avail. and install them properly, double and triple checking fittings, clamps, bolts torque, etc... but If you just wanna know how to make it bullet-proof, the answer is you cant

hope this helps
 
There doesnt need to be a real high oil flow to the cylinder head, the only way oil pressure will drop to the cylinder head is if there was a gallery blockage or the oil pump failed (in that case I wouldnt be worried about the head but rather the bottom end).

A blockage may occur when old carbon filled sludgey oil thats never replaced hardens up and creates the blockage or restriction, regular oil changes with prevent that from occuring, or the engine was built incorrectly in the first place.

Often with higher flow oil pumps some galleries are blocked or restriced the to head as at high rpm/ high much of the oil builds up in the head as gravity hasnt retuned it quick enough and the oil level in the sump where its needed for pickup gets low.


Like I said while watching the oil pressure gauge if oil pressure is low I would be worried about the bottom end before the head.
 
I can't think of any logical possible ways to overcome this other than changing and flushing the oil out of the engine everytime before a race etc. That's just impractical and not likely to do any good.
Any help would be muchos appreciated.
Cheers guys

wait.... I just read this closer... It's not impractical to change oil before every race.. In fact, it's generally normal practice - something I certainly would reccomend anybody do... just like changing oil every 2500-3000 (depending on boosted or non) miles on a normal car... yes, change the oil
 
Cheers guys, that does help a lot, confirming what I thought. :cheers:

Viper: Cheers for the reply, thats made it a lot clearer to me the situation at hand.
This particular engine was a Honda CBR 600, used in our uni's formula student car. Cylocone was used to secure a part to the engine and somehow it worked its way in the oil passages.

Lead: cheers mate for the reply, just I meant flushing the engine out other than just changing the oil. But yeah that just slipped my mind whenI posted that, that teams do actually change the oil every race.

Off to finish this 2000 words and another 6000 by friday :). Can't wait.
 

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