20 OCT-DEC 2010 engine professional

Component
Failure Analysis
BY DUANE BOES
The old saying you will never have
anything better if you dont take care
of what you havehas become more
relevant than ever. The cost of doing
business in todays economy has made it
difcult for even the best race teams to
improve their programs. Any effort to
help a customer understand what may
cause a component failure is always the
rst step in preventing it. In the long run
identifying the cause of a failure whether
it be design, material, workmanship or as
is often the case, (how the item was used
or maintained) is the best way to convert
these negative situations into positive
ourcomes. Ioi rle nexr seveial lunuieu
words we will examine cases where
workmanship and application were the
primary cause of catastrophic failure.
In the process of freshening an engine
decisions are made to repair or replace
useu comonenrs. Due ro rleii cosr oi
lack availability crankshafts are often
repaired. In the next two examples we
will examine failures due to improper
repair procedures. We will show you
what to look for and explain how to
specify exactly what steps your repair
service provider should take to avoid
these disasters.
Our rst example involves the
typical regrind of a worn rod journal.
In this case the shaft had not suffered
a heat-inducing rod bearing failure.
The journals had simply been worn
sufciently that their geometry was
no longer acceptable for an engine
generating 580 ft. lb. of torque at 7200
RPN. 1lis ciank lau Leen senr our
for a common -.010 regrind. After
being placed back in service this shaft
survived fewer than 80 laps before
breaking completely in two, you can
imagine how unhappy the end-user was
with that outcome. Upon disassembly
it became apparent the engine builder
had done nothing wrong, the journals
exhibited no signs of heat, debris from
another component failure within the
engine or dirt from an unclean build
were not present. Once the shaft had
been removed from the block a careful
examination revealed the root cause.
In (Iiguie 1) ve aie visually comaiing
the prole of a well-shaped llet radius
to a precision gauge made with the
desired llet prole. In this photo we
can see how the gauge lies nicely in the
conroui o rle iauius. Ciearing rlese
radius contours on a grinding wheel is a
pains-taking exercise in craftsmanship,
which is often neglected and over looked.
It is important to notice the smooth
transitions this let makes onto the
jouinal OD suiaces. 1le jouinal O-D
tangency points of these transitions are
areas of high stress concentration, for
that reason, irregularities in these areas
become signicant Stress Risers. Looking
ar (Iiguie 2) ve see an unLioken nller
from an adjacent rod journal of the failed
crankshaft. Not only is the radius small,
but notice the sharp transition the llet
makes onro rle jouinals OD. 1lis slai
transition is a signicant stress riser. After
1
2
Figure 2: An under size llet with (sharp at
arrow) under blended OD tangency point,
being compared to a Precision Radius Gauge.
Figure 1: A well done llet with smooth
tangency points being compared to a
Precision Radius Gauge.
22 OCT-DEC 2010 engine professional
COMPONENT FAILURE ANALYSIS
BY DUANE BOES
a minimal amount of bending induced
fatigue a crack that initiates in this sharp
transition will quickly propagate along
this stress riser. When viewing the broken
jouinal (Iiguie 3) norice lov rle Lieak
follows the sharp radius blend precisely
around the journal. The break is so
smooth and true that it almost appears to
have been cut with a saw. The true and
precise nature of this break is the rst
indicator that a stress riser mechanically
induced this failure. Your best protection
against this situation is a careful and
inexpensive visual inspection of all llets
after grinding. As is always the case a
little prevention is worth a lot of cure.
You can avoid this outcome by
telling the machinist who is regrinding
and polishing your crank exactly what
you expect and dont want to see. Look
ar (Iiguie 4) ir is an illusriarion o
improperly dressed grinding wheels. Keep
in mind the goal in dressing a wheel is
to create a tangent blend point between
rle nller iauius anu rle jouinal OD anu
siuevall. 1le ler siue o (Iiguie 4) is an
example of an over blended radius on
rle OD vlile rle iiglr siue is an examle
o an unuei Llenueu OD iauius. Borl
conditions will result in an unacceptable
radius contour that will leave a stress
riser at the blend point. After being
ground the journals will be polished,
make it perfectly clear that you expect
the llets to be polished to a high luster
nish that is every bit as ne as the
OD. Wirl goou rangency oinrs anu a
ne nish you will greatly improve the
endurance of any crankshaft. The type of
ailuie seen in (Iiguie 2) vill Le viirually
eliminated.
Our second problem involves a
journal that had been repaired by
veluing mareiial onro rle OD. Wlen
done properly this common practice is
quite capable of yielding a durable repair.
When done incorrectly, weld repairs can
be short lived. Every weld produces a
Heat Affected Zone (HAZ); within this
zone the grain structure of the parent
material is signicantly altered. This
alteration of grain creates an internal
stress riser, for this reason the HAZ
needs to be moved away from areas of
ligl sriess. Looking ar (Iiguie 5) you
can see a visible lap created by a weld
that did not penetrate seamlessly into
the parent material. This lap serves as
a witness mark which veries this as
the last pass made during the welding
process. Unfortunately for this crank the
HAZ of this weld is in a heavily stressed
llet. With any crank journal repair, the
weld must extend up the journal sidewall
to insure the HAZ is beyond the llet
aiea. Iiom (Iiguie 5) ve knov rvo
misrakes veie maue in rlis ieaii, Iiisr
the weld did not extend beyond the llet,
and Second the weld was penetrating
3
5
4
Figure 3: Arrow indicates the area
of fracture origin, notice the true
and crisp edge that precisely
follows the sharp OD tangency
point of an under blended radius.
Figure 4: Left illustration is of an
Over Blended radius, Illustration
on right depicts an Under Blended
(sharp)radius.
Figure 5: Open weld aw
indicated by arrow.
24 OCT-DEC 2010 engine professional
the parent material inconsistently. To
have an exposed weld lap is absolutely
unacceptable, regardless of location.
Think of these type aws as open
invitations to disaster. When sending a
crankshaft out for journal welding your
vendor must clearly understand that you
expect the HAZ to be out of the llet and
that any type of open weld aw near a
llet will not be tolerated.
The last failure we will review can be
extremely destructive. We will be looking
at crankshaft post separations. The
lorogial in (Iiguie 6) is o a osr iom
a naruially asiiareu Big Block Clevy
engine. The operating circumstances of
this engine were fairly mild, the tune-
up was not radical and a very good
damper had been installed. Under these
circumstances there should have been no
way for this type of failure to occur, but
ir uiu, so vlar venr viong. In (Iiguie 6)
we are looking at the fracture face, in this
view a brownish area can be seen just to
the right of the keyway. This area was
the initiation site for this failure. This
brown coloration is a result of heat and
oil staining, generated as the two faces
voikeu againsr eacl orlei. Iiom rlis
area we can see beach marks (fracture
striations) emanating outward. The speed
at which the fracture began to progress
can be witnessed by the increasing
distance between each striation. This
post stayed together until all that was
left holding it was the dark gray circle at
roughly 7:00 Oclock in relation to the
keyway. This is impressive when you stop
to think that this small section was able
to briey hold that much energy. Another
viev o rlis osr can Le seen in (Iiguie
7), an arrow is pointing to the section of
the circumference that coincides exactly
with the brownish area on the fracture
face. Notice the true and precise edge
of the broken post, it almost appears as
though Superman scored this post with a
glass cutter, then simply snapped it off. In
a sense that is exactly what happened. In
this situation and many others like it the
chamfer of the timing gear had cut into
the llet radius at the back of the post
when the gear was installed.
Looking ar (Iiguie S) anorlei osr
with the timing gear still attached can
Le seen. 1lis rime rle Piimaiy iacruie
Legins ar 6:00 O`clock ro rle keyvay.
Initially this fracture progressed slowly,
but once the striations reached the
multiple keyways the pace of this failure
COMPONENT FAILURE ANALYSIS
BY DUANE BOES
6
7
8
Figure 6: Fracture face
from broken post of
naturally aspirated
engine.
Figure 7: Crisp edge at
failure initiation site.
Figure 8: Red Arrow =
Primary initiation site,
Yellow arrows are
Secondary initiation
sites.
26 OCT-DEC 2010 engine professional
COMPONENT FAILURE ANALYSIS
BY DUANE BOES
increased signicantly. The reason for
this increase in speed is that Secondary
fracture points had already been initiated
at each of the nine keyway locations.
Arrows have been placed at a few of
these secondary points that can be
witnessed by the striations that emanate
outward from each. Once again with
this post the last area to let go is dark
gray and rough in texture as though it
was simply torn apart. In this example
the timing gear was left on to show how
perfectly the keyways and secondary
striations are aligned. Both initiation
sires, Piimaiy anu Seconuaiy veie rle
result of a stress riser that was scored
into the post radius when the timing gear
vas iesseu on. 1le Piimaiy iniriarion
point became such by the fact that it
covered a greater distance along the
circumference of post.
Many timing gears are made of
carburized and hardened steel which
leaves them very hard for wear
resistance. At the same time these gears
are often considered to be a commodity
item, produced with minimal steps in
manufacture by the most efcient means
possible. You will always nd the inside
diameter edge of the chamfer on these
gears to be very crisp. When you place
a nice, well dened edge on a hardened
piece of steel youve just created the
perfect instrument to score a radius. Two
things could have been done to prevent
rle osr ailuies ve jusr uesciiLeu. Iiisr,
make sure the gear chamfer is large
enough to accommodate the post radius.
Second, take a minute to break both
edges of the gear chamfer. By eliminating
those sharp edges and verifying your
clearance you will have eliminated the
possibility of your gear plowing an
engine destroying stress riser into your
crankshaft.
These examples did not fail on their
own, but rather as the result of some
outside inuence being brought to
bear upon them. As mentioned in the
rst paragraph, how an item is used
or maintained will often determine
irs liesan. Ioi rlar ieason ve musr
be careful not to prematurely reach
a conclusion by simply saying the
component failed. By taking time
to understand the applied loads and
carefully examining the fracture site we
may discover the actual failure began
with a human.
Duane Boes is from Callies Performance
Products in Fostoria, Ohio. For more
information, please call 419-436-8402
or e-mail dboes@callies.com.