[John]

Over the years, I've read a number of articles suggesting accelerated maintenance schedules for 968's used in DE,

most of them authored by Jim Pasha and Bill Burris. The ones I've settled on are:

Oil -- chg @ 3K mi, Filter -- chg @ 6K mi

Cam & Bal Shaft belts-- chk @ 15K mi, repl @ 30K

Trans Axle Oil - repl @ 15K

(the above refer to total miles, street and DE.)

Rod Bearings - repl @ 60 hrs

What are your opinions on this. What schedules have you adopted? I'm particularly interested on your thoughts on

the Rod Bearings, since I'm coming up on 52 hours.

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[DaveN]

Rod bearing estimate scares me, I mean, can DE really be that hard on an engine? I changed mime at 130,000 Km and they just started to look like it was time. I took the mean of in town driving (55) and highway (120) and figured that was about 80 Kph. Using maths that came to a little over 1600 hours. DE must be really hard on an engine.

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[Cloud9...68]

Sounds like a good argument for a Lindsay Racing 3-piece cross-member.

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[Cloud9...68]

You gave me an idea for what to put in one of the slots in my upcoming gauge panel - and engine hour gauge! Ideally, I'd like one that automatically records the total number of engine hours, but also allows me to manually monitor (by pressing a button at the start of the session) the number of hours accumulated on the track. I've spent some time searching, but I haven't found anything that quite matches this description in a round gauge. There are several for motorcycle applications, but they're all square-shipped, LED-type gauges. For the racers out there, does anybody have an engine hour meter in their race car? Thanks.

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[pure&simple]

Engine hour gauge seems like overkill for a streetable engine - isn't this seen more on engines that have super-high compression are designed to be periodically rebuilt? Pete's 330hp NA motor might be a candidate for this.



My car went 130k miles + 10 days of track events on its original rod bearings. When replaced, visual inspection of the old ones indicated they would have let go soon. I was told to replace every two years for a DE/daily driver. I had the Lindsey 3-pc crossmember installed during the first replacement.

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[Cloud9...68]

I agree that an engine hour gauge is probably overkill, but I'm really struggling with what to put in the other two slots of my upcoming console gauge plate (engine oil temp gauge is a given). I'm open to any and all suggestions. The car will be primarily a track car, through still streetable (at least initially), to at least get to and from the track.

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[John]

Pure&simple, the 52 hours I mentioned was accumulated over 36 track days, spread over 6 or more years. As a rough check, 4 of 25 min. runs a day works out to 60 hours. How many track days was that suggested 2 year replacement rate based upon?

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[flash]

as a measuring stick only, we always tore down a race engine each season or after 100 hours, whichever came first, regardless of car - it always needed it



when you are talking about racing, every little bit counts



2 or 3 hp can be the difference between 1st or 2nd - it takes very little wear to cost you that



oiling is everything - bearing play or a weak pump can cost you an engine



freshening things up keeps you from buying cranks and pistons



welcome to the real cost of racing



i can't speak to DEs, because they aren't nearly as abusive as racing, but with the pounding these big pistons generate, i can't think it would be much different on the rod bearings

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[RS Barn]

I tried to reply but didn't seem to connect.

944-968 Rod bearings do fail. Extended turns cause oil to climb out of oil pan causing cavitation at oil pickup.

Rod bearing inspection is the first detection of wear. Depending on type of track I recommend replacing every other track season.

ask me how I know?

Pete

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[Cloud9...68]

Seems like adding a baffle in the pan to contain the oil around the pickup tube inlet would be a pretty good idea... Any downside to doing this?

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[RS Barn]

I'm a fan of Lindsey oil pan kit. Skirt on oil pick up tube and gated pan block

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[Cloud9...68]

Cool! I was planning to order one of those.

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[John]

Pete, change every other track season? Ouch! Your recommendation must assume some number of track days per season, right? Roughly how many?

... thanks, John

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[pmcrespo]

[quote name='RS Barn' timestamp='1311739005' post='113267']

I'm a fan of Lindsey oil pan kit. Skirt on oil pick up tube and gated pan block

[/quote]



This is one of a few things that was in the back of my mind two weekends ago every time I went around the 24 degree banked Pocono NASCAR Turn 1 wide open pulling probably close to 2Gs.... about 80 times that weekend....

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