DEI Engine problems appear to be solved UPDATE: Teammates #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. and #1-Martin Truex Jr. both suffered blown engines last Sunday at California, and it appears the engine department has solved the problem. Earnhardt Jr. said “The unleaded fuel lubricates the valve train less so we’re going to have to address that by applying more oil in the left front side of the motor in the valve train. The right side of the valve train looked really, really good. Centrifugal force pushed all the oil over so we have to somehow pump more oil over to the left side of the valve train and give that more durability. That’s what our company has done this past week and we should have no problems.”(PRN's Garage Pass Radio Show)(3-9-2007)
UPDATE: However, the issue might have been deeper than just lubrication. A source inside the DEI organization said a broken valve spring and a spun bearing caused the engine to fail. Neither issue was directly related to running unleaded fuels. "We tossed away a bunch of defective valve springs to solve on of the issues," said the source. As for the bearing, the failure was the result of an oiling failure no previously seen by the engine department. We looked at our process of building engines and it wasn't an issue with construction."(Circletrackplus.com)(3-10-2007)
Low bid.