One thing I will say is "oil volume" which is needed to cool the bearing faces... in order to get volume you need pressure, canÆt have one without the other and get the oil to where itÆs needs to go.... [/quote]
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>>>*I kinda think that the meaning of "volume" doesn't refer totally to the amount forced into the system, it also refers to the sump or storage capacity. The more volume we have not in use at any given time, the more chance for air bubbles to burst and heat to bleed off. Then we can press the larger and cooler volume into the system with effect.
Our enemy is always the hydraulic effect, the simple act of squeezing or forcing the oil to move excites the molecules, which is heat.
Our early attempts at racing engines were always to the loose or increased clearence side. Oil is easier to move through a larger space of course. Then along came synthetics, which will flow more readily in all situations.
Next was machining techniques, we could create dead true circles and surfaces of so close to perfection that almost no one could measure the flaws (which are always there, even today). Right behind was materials so strong we no longer needed 1000 gram connecting rods, I have installed rods that are under 500 grams and twice as strong as the best we had 20 years ago.
So crankpins now are smaller, reducing surface to surface speeds, clearences are closer with less restrictions, so pressures can be reduced. Even bearing width has been reduced, because the new materials can withstand the loading, this means less friction, too.
Weight is down, hydraulics is down, strength is up. Combine that with current knowledge of port shapes and combustion chamber shapes and we drag more power out of an engine than was possible just a decade ago.
Those gains are coming fast too. I would hazard a guess that even with my poor knowledge gains over the last decade or so, let me put it to use just 15 years ago and I could build an engine that would beat the best of the time, with ease!
And there are young folks out there way ahead of this old man.
*Wunnerful stuff...keeps me going. Things to learn...*EB
