AE: Honda's race-bred connecting rod bearing

AE: Honda's race-bred connecting rod bearing

Stroking of the 1.6-L engine by 19% to obtain 1.8-L would have been accompanied by a 20% increase in load of such vital components as the crankshaft. Our data on the 1.6-L's crankshaft indicated that it would not stand up to that kind of load. Nor would the connecting-rod bearing metal." Widening the bearing metal would have made it withstand the load, but that would have further reduced the crankshaft's strength, which had to accommodate the wider bearings within a set length. Attainable and allowable piston speed is really determined by the fine balance between the crankshaft and connecting-rod bearing performances

In the B18C, it enabled the engine designers to reduce the connecting-rod bearing width from the B16A's 19.5 to 17.5 mm. Two millimeters shaved off each connecting rod journal is added to the crankshaft webs flanking it, giving the crankshaft the extra strength it needed