Well, this POS has really let me down now.

I have 98,000 miles on it & a connecting rod bearing just let go.

Now, I don't know what to do with the **** thing. I can't sell it the way it is & it will cost a small fortune to get it fixed.

I work at a car dealer & we are going to try & locate a used engine for it, but I'm not real confident of that happening.

I will never ever buy a hybrid anything again at this point. Parts are ridiculously expensive for it, they are hard to get and nobody knows how to work on it.

~John

 

The engine side of this is little different than the straight 4 cyl engine. It should cost you about the same as the non-hybrid version to repair the connecting rod. I've seen discussion on spun bearings and this is probably virtually the same. My take is that when you cycle from ICE off to ON you need to allow it a few seconds for oil to get back out to bearings. Which bearing let go?

 

How do we do that? Are you saying to avoid accelerating from an ICE off state?

 

Maybe I should have said a bit more... but I was using the quick reply box.

The discussion on spun bearings has been somewhat extensive. What I meant specifically was was that one should not accelerate from stop to high power suddenly. Don't floor it from a stop with ICE off.

If you're at a stop light and know you're going to scoot out in traffic, use the Defrost switch or max A/C to kick in the ICE a few seconds before launch.

If you're just moving along at low power it'll take care of itself. But if you suddenly go from ICE off to high power you run the risk of spinning a bearing. The reason is that while the ICE is off oil begins draining back to the sump. When you hit it and go to full power the ICE responds very quickly. On the other hand the oil takes some time, just a few seconds, to get back to all bearings.

Thus there's a second or so where you risk spinning a bearing if you go to full power from ICE off. This doesn't happen on a normal start or if you're just kind of motoring along with the ICE cycling because you're at low load.

 

Sounds like the FEH needs an auxillary electric engine oil pump. Or maybe a DBW delay to let oil get to the bearings before going from startup to WOT.

 

That's why I put one on my FEH.

 

Here we go again!

The amount of oil is controlled through the crankshaft by drilled holes that the oil pump provides pressure. This oil goes through these holes to the rod bearings and a controlled amount of this oil is slung from the rod bearing onto the cylinder walls to lube them. If Ford engineers thought they needed anything like Willard or Bill suggest, they would have made a design change.

I have to call Bill to explain just how he modified his engine oil system in detail because I think it's all BS IMO.

GaryG

 

So call me. Electric oil pumps have been on the market for decades. I bought one in 1993 and put it on my Suburban then around 44,000 miles and now nearly 437,000 on its original engine. I bought another in 2001 and put it on my Mustang at a few thousand miles. It's now at 254,000 miles.

Go google "Sales Professionals" located in Pennsylvania, as I recall in King of Prussia. Don't know if they're still in business, but they're the ones I bought from for the above two cars.

Once again you seem to think no one could be anywhere near as smart as you.

What you leave out on oil flow is that the oil comes in one end of the crankshaft and goes the length to get to all bearings. It is distributed via drilled passages that only flow when the drilled passages are aligned as the crankshaft rotates.

So effectively the oil takes some time to get from one end of the crankshaft to the other. As I noted its only takes a couple of seconds... but if you go to very high power that can be enough to spin a bearing.

My bet is that if you look closely at these failures you'll find them at the end of the crankshaft opposite from where the oil enters it.

Perhaps you might study how oil flows in an engine some more.

 

Just give us pictures where you tapped into the oil system to circulate the oil.

GaryG

 

Sump Drain (ie oil pan drain plug) as the supply source.

Tee fitting at the oil pressure switch as the pressure discharge to the engine.

Is that all you can ask? Isn't even tough.

One doesn't even need pictures to get the idea.