AJP snapped Crank shaft

[scotty_d]

From the AJP sump thread, I stripped down part of a old Engine Geo had for some spares, Once I had the sump off this is what I could see. The block had a crack right down one side and a hole as big as a 50P on the other. I know it was a cast crank, But why would that cause it to snap on it's own? was it just a poor casting process or what? My car is a 99 so i hope to never see this as it has the later Crank but scary stuff.

[Mr Cerbera]

Mate, I put a hole in the crancase of a Mini I once owned.

No engine has been built that can survive the infinite stupidity of a careless owner.

Yours will be fine

[GT6k]

Snapping is usually fatigue, I used to have a set used for teaching, one was of a 40yr old Morris Minor crank with a fatigue crack all the way through with just a 1mm sliver having finally gone pop, the other was of an Alfasud sprint about 2years old fatigued about halfway through then snapped. I used to get students to look at the fracture surfaces and see which one was driven by the chav and which one by the district nurse.