Oh, this looks like fun!

Morgans wrote:
"Cal Vanize" wrote


I've had a thrown rod in a VW,


What can you say about that one. VW (if it was a beetle) engines were over
stressed, even in a car, IMHO, and I would not trust one further than I
could throw it. I owned one, too.

cast cranks break.
even in cars.

a broken distributor in a Corvair

I don't know what to say about that one. Would more complete inspection (as
a airplane engine would get) have caught it? I can't comment further,
without knowing more about the type of failure.

I busted a distributor drive in an old '65 ford van.

the "cause" was a rusty gas tank that kept clogging the fuel filter.
made the poor beast chug so hard at times that it finally broke the drive.



jumped timing chain in a Ford.


busted a timing belt in my little bronze Les Nesman K-car.
was running real smooth, then stopped.
about 88,000 miles

How many K miles? Timing chains are a maintainance item. They (and
sprockets) wear out, and need to be replaced. Almost always, they fail at
well over 100 K miles.


In all cases the result was getting towed.


"San Antonio Center, this is experimental triple nickel,
20 miles west at 5000 feet.
Um, we seem to have a little situation here.
Looks like we broke a timing belt.
Can you contact AOPA and have them send out a tow plane?
QUICKLY!?!?"



I wonder how many hours that comes up to, in driving hours, and more
importantly, how many hours toral, the failed units had on them. My guuess
is that the total would make your 900 flying hours look like a tiny
fraction.


100,000 miles at 50 miles per hour average should be right near 2000 hours.

100 hours at the same average 50 mile per hour is a paltry 5000 miles.

Can you imagine tearing into a running automobile engine that often.
Just to see if it was ok?