What causes a spun bearing on a ej205 ?

[Sausage]

I've read everyone's posts stating that they've spun a bearing, but it seems to happen mysteriously. The story usually goes that they were driving and all of a sudden, they heard knocking...


So what causes your engine to spin a bearing,

Oil starvation and rpm > 7500 are the two i can think of off the top of my head.

But what else should I avoid?

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[hondaeater69]

Originally Posted by Sausage

But what else should I avoid?

detonation.

[powerlabs]

Oil starvation
Detonation
Making a lot of power for a long time
Debris / dirt in your oil
Oil overheating and shearing too thin
Old oil losing its lubricating capacity
Incorrect oil use
To name a few.

I spun mine on a stock EJ25 with 80K miles by driving at about 120 - 135MPH for maybe 2minutes non stop. My conclusion was that the motor was junk and was never designed for it. Realistically it probably got starved during all that "high" (6100) RPM duty. Boy am I glad I don't have that under the hood any more.

[Sausage]

^ Thanks for the info.

I'm wondering how long I can go on a stage 4 setup with the car as my DD and an occasional auto x before that thing blows on me.

[jigga]

one more.... running too low an oil level....

[JMK508]

if you are stage 4 it is only a matter of time. Make sure you have a rock solid tune,correct oil level at all times,oil changing every 2500-4000 miles, and are using the correct weight oil. These ideas will only help in the fight against the SPUN BEARING syndrome.

[STREETFAME16]

I had this happen to me. I just got my car back from Subaru. They had the car for almost two months doing the warranty work. It happened to me a little after the oil change. It has happened to a few people right after the oil change.

I was very, very lucky it was covered. I also was wondering the answer to this question. I take very good care of my baby and was very upset when this happened.



I am just trying to avoid this happening again at all cost.

[Uncle Scotty]

...oil too thin to start....sheared all to hell by the engine.....fuel diluted all to hell by blowby....and one good hard knock from a banzi run....is a good place to start with the spun bearing thing.

__________________________________________________ ________

if you are stage 4 it is only a matter of time.

.....yeah right....

[Sausage]

So it looks like I can't really avoid it unless I baby the car and not have any fun...


And for those that will argue: If you buy movie theater popcorn, you pour butter on it. If you go out drinking, you don't stop after 1 beer. And if you are dating a hot chick, you can't keep OT away from her pics.

Like tony synclair says: all in moderation

[Sausage]

Originally Posted by Uncle Scotty

...
oil too thin to start - fully synthetic 5w30
sheared all to hell by the engine - dunno what to do about this one
fuel diluted all to hell by blowby - Catch Can FTW
and one good hard knock from a banzi run -Can't avoid these either

All in all, looks like I probably should do the ej257 thing while I'm replacing heads...

Guess that means I'll be asking a lot of tranmission ?s next ...

[hondaeater69]

Originally Posted by Sausage

So it looks like I can't really avoid it unless I baby the car and not have any fun...

where do you get that from?

[hondaeater69]

Originally Posted by Sausage

All in all, looks like I probably should do the ej257 thing while I'm replacing heads...

Guess that means I'll be asking a lot of tranmission ?s next ...

and regarding the things scotty mentioned:

5-30 doesn't really mean much to me. different cars respond differently to viscosity, the only way to know for usre what your car like or dislikes is to have it analyzed to test shearing, TBN, dirt content, and also monitor consumption. they also test for common bearing wear metals, like copper.

most of the people that have blow by issues are more than likely running an oil too thin.

yes you can avoid knocking, with a good safe conservative custom tune with the right mods and monitoring. some of the spun bearings i have seen came as a result of prolonged high speed/high sustained RPM driving. although 7K is the rev limiter, the engine was not designed to maintain that amount of revolutions for prolonged periods of time. it's also not meant to run 130MPH for sustained periods. if you do these things you are more likely to have engine failure.

a combination of good preventive modding/tuning, and not doing stupid things chances are you can avoid a mechanical engine failure.

and regarding the comment on spinning a bearing with fresh oil, i've read (iirc on blackstone's website) that brand new oil doesn't protect as good as oil that is broken in...i'll try to find the article.

[ChristopherG]

Good read here, especially since I'm Stage IV now.

Hopefully a nice 15w50 oil during the summer won't be too thin

[Sausage]

Thanks for the info:

So I'm not planning on driving above 80mph and I'm planing on keeping the rpms up past 5k for any extended period of time.

DD = Few launches once in a while and mostly highway cruising
autox = good start + lower speeds, but possible higher rpms, but only for 45sec of so

So it doens't look like I'm in the danger zone, which would be circuit racing or even going to a track.

I have 0 blowby from the crank case but I get a ton of blow by from the valve covers. Which makes me think the block is still good.

[powerlabs]

Originally Posted by hondaeater69

Some of the spun bearings i have seen came as a result of prolonged high speed/high sustained RPM driving. although 7K is the rev limiter, the engine was not designed to maintain that amount of revolutions for prolonged periods of time. it's also not meant to run 130MPH for sustained periods. if you do these things you are more likely to have engine failure.

Erm... So, if you live in Germany, or Montana, or anywhere else in the world where one can drive his car at 130MPH for sustained periods, you're screwed?
I refuse to believe Subaru makes engines that are that poorly designed. A toyota Avalon will do 130MPH for christ's sake

[Sausage]

Well the guy I work with, his story was that he took it to a circuit track in PA. And during one of the long sloping corners, the enigne wasn't getting enough oil due the the centripital force not letting it get to the pump, and he went knock knock with 39k on his car. But basically a stock setup

[PaulRex]

One of my personal rules is that I dont go WOT in 5th gear for sustained pulls, although Ive been more lax about it now with RA ratios. But Ive read alot of threads where people did this doing long highway pulls to 130+ in the tallest gear and just killed their motors.

[Ralliart4]

Oh crap come on please say it aint so.... i should have just stuck to the crankwalking poop boxes that im used to

[tachrev]

Originally Posted by Ralliart4

Oh crap come on please say it aint so.... i should have just stuck to the crankwalking poop boxes that im used to

See crank walk. Walk crank, walk.

Ah, DSM's....

[hondaeater69]

Originally Posted by powerlabs

Erm... So, if you live in Germany, or Montana, or anywhere else in the world where one can drive his car at 130MPH for sustained periods, you're screwed?
I refuse to believe Subaru makes engines that are that poorly designed. A toyota Avalon will do 130MPH for christ's sake

are you stoned or something? you can make a prius hit 130, doesn't mean it was meant to live there. push your wrx to 130 on a day to day basis for sustained times (not just i hit 130, ride it for 30 minutes plus) and let me know how that works out for ya.

didn't you pop a couple engines in a short of time? i may be confusing you with a different member, but your SN looks familiar.

[Uncle Scotty]

...a catch can does NOTHING AT ALL for 'blow by' or fuel dilution of the oil...it just 'catches' some of the crap that would have been sucked back into the intake by the PCV system.


...some of you guys REALLY need to wake up and educate yourselves a bit better on all of this before ya start modding things.....cuz a LOT of these posted failures are

[Ralliart4]

Originally Posted by tachrev

See crank walk. Walk crank, walk.

Ah, DSM's....

I have owned a couple evo's and some sr20det's some heavily modded and some light but i have never had any problems... is it that subaru america never expected people to drive these cars or just simply be satisfied with the table scraps

[hondaeater69]

Originally Posted by Ralliart4

I have owned a couple evo's and some sr20det's some heavily modded and some light but i have never had any problems... is it that subaru america never expected people to drive these cars or just simply be satisfied with the table scraps

i don't get this mentality sometimes. the wrx is a low 20K entry level sports sedan. it's not built to the same tolerances as an evo, or even an STi at that.

i run about 50% power over OEM levels, my car runs great with about 85K on the odometer.

for what it is, the engine is capable. the problem is people think it's a dedicated race car just because it came with a turbo in oem fashion.

[Uncle Scotty]

Originally Posted by hondaeater69

i don't get this mentality sometimes. the wrx is a low 20K entry level sports sedan. it's not built to the same tolerances as an evo, or even as STi at that.

i run about 50% power over OEM levels, my car runs great with about 85K on the odometer.

for what it is, the engine is capable. the problem is people think it's a dedicated race car just because it came with a turbo in oem fashion.

+1^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[JMK508]

Very true post. Plus 1 for you sir!