Roy U
Hows things

First off let me say I am not a spokesman for any engine manufacturer or indicating that they have issues with their product as these failures are in most cases caused by pushing the envelope of power output well beyond the origional design. let me also state that these occurances have been rare relative to sheer volume. and have occured on stock and modified parts.


Well heres what I can tell you, during mid 2001 there was an issue with the backs of cranks falling off occasionally on modified and stock engines. generally the upper section with the crank pin on it. The crack emenated from the root of the bearing where the crank seats in the inner race of the big bearing. Bottom line was that the radius of the root was too sharp. This appeared to get better in mid 2002 however during tha mid to latter part of 2003 as the 11MM crank was being phased out failures through the crank window began to appear and it was traced to insufficent case hardening with rockwell values checking very low on some of them and a lot of racers complaining of serious premature crank pin wear. Now with that said the RTO and RTU variants I was building are still competitive with what is being produced today so it is apparent I was pushing the envelope of the hardware very hard way back in 2000, however the field if flatlining and that is a good thing. the 11.5 crank came along for good reason. Most don't know that these cranks are cast and as close as my metallurgist can tell they are close to 1050 carbon steel as this gives way to a more defined counterweight shape. some of the others are machining billet cranks and you will usually see minimal counterweight profiles.

Theres my 2 cents on cranks, If I can be of service you know how to reach me.
PS congrats on a 2 finish at the regionals. Tommy P had a new RTU GEN5 BD version engine he intended to loan you but I think it showed a little late.

sorry everyone else for going off on a tangent