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.

In our family history, we blew out jugs, head gaskets, two thrown rods.
Not a great record.



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.

Actually a broken distributor shaft. Car had a few miles on it, but
hardly high mileage.



jumped timing chain in a Ford.


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.


Fairly low miles. Around 15k, IIRC. Just outside of warranty in its day.



In all cases the result was getting towed.


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.

At avg. of 50 mph (easy highway miles) that would be 45,000 miles in
cars. At that mileage, the Ford had its timing chain jump and both of
hte VW engines that threw rods failed within that mileage.

Corvair had more miles, in the 70k range, but it had other problems that
would have disqualified is as reliable transportation.